Shattered Mind: Anger
by Krimson Rogue
Summary: Trevor has found the meaning behind the dreams he's been having. Now, he must deal with an even bigger monster than anything ever before. Sequel to Shattered Mind: Issues.
1. Awaken to a Nightmare

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters in this story. I mean, c'mon! I said that in every chapter in Issues! I think that's pretty obvious by now, right?

Author's notes: It took bloody long enough, but I finally got this written. I'm sorry about that, but this was a really hard fight to write. And I still don't like it as a whole than I do with only the really good parts, but oh well. The consequence of writing I suppose. I just hope you all like it.

First and foremost, Yuleen75 has been kind enough to create the first piece of fanart for Shattered Mind. It's a frame of when Trevor charged out onto the stage in chapter 1 and greeted Zidane. It's so accurate to how I imagined Trevor looking that I was extremely surprised when I first saw it. Quite frankly, I think that having fanart alone is awesome, but the fact that it's so bloody good makes it even better. Here's a link:

http:/ galeon. com/ artemisa/ trevor. jpg

Anyone else who enters their own fanart will have it brought to attention like this and talked about so that everyone else can see it. Shattered Mind fanart is awesome.

Next, I've been thinking about writing a book. A real, professional one. The reason I began writing Shattered Mind was so that I could get enough experience to write professionally someday. Now that I think I have a good idea for a fantasy novel, I might take time out to write a bit here and there now and then. I don't know how I'd set up my schedule, what with my classes getting in my way, but I'll make sure to take time out for Shattered Mind. There's no way I'd let it sink after as far as I've gone. I may begin writing it over the summer, but then again, that's still really tentative at this point.

IMPORTANT! In order to become a professional writer, I need to learn how to write better. With that in mind, I ask you, the readers, to leave whatever constructive criticism you can. If you think I need to work on characters more, then tell me. Don't like the way I wrote a certain chunk of the story? Point it out and say what's wrong. I'd appreciate any help you can give me.

Lastly, I felt that I needed to say that I've signed up for a lot of writing classes (stupid English major), so I'm not sure how enthusiastic I'll be for writing Shattered Mind. I'll do what I can, but writing arduous, whole page assignments every other day, among all the bloody reading I have to do, will get really draining, really fast. I'll do what I can though. Wish me luck.

And now, for those of you who didn't just skip the author's notes, or who decided to read the chapter first, then read the notes, here's Chapter 1 of Shattered Mind: Anger! (although I don't know what good that will do you if you belong to the latter group).

Chapter 1- Awaken to a Nightmare.

XXXXXXXX

…_What…happened?_

My consciousness came back to me in a brush of wind. It sounded like I came through a wind tunnel as my vision slowly refocused. The cold rain splashing on my face, mixed with the chill of the cold stone ground, made waking up only easier. My breath came with much labor. After a quick recall, I remembered that I had gotten like this after fighting Beatrix. She had decimated all four of us, Zidane, Freya, Vivi, and myself, without even breaking a sweat. I was lucky to be alive.

Looking around, I saw that there was no more sign of Beatrix, Queen Brahne, or any Alexandrian forces. We had simply been left to die.

Turning my head the other way, I saw that Freya and Zidane were crawling to me, apparently unable to use their legs very well. They must've gotten their legs damaged in the fight just now. I blinked weakly at them, as they appeared blurred, my vision mixed with rain and exhaustion. I strained myself to lift my arm and reach out for them, through they were still a few feet away.

_Guys… Are you alright?... Where's Vivi?..._ I wanted to ask, but the words became stuck in my throat. My mouth could barely even move. In fact, most of my body seemed numb. My only hope for recovery, it seemed, hinged on Zidane getting to my side and giving me a potion. I didn't know how hurt I was, but a potion would at least do something.

As Zidane and Freya neared, I could see their mouths moving rapidly. They seemed to be yelling something frantically, but I couldn't hear a single word. The only sound that I could hear was the constant rain falling from the clouds and smashing into the ground. I looked at them with my eyes open only as slits. I desperately tried to catch a phrase, a single word of what they were saying, but it was futile.

_Kaiten… What happened?_ I tried to ask the Terran soul stuck in my head. Several seconds passed without any response. I could understand not being able to hear Zidane or Freya due to injury to my ears, but I couldn't fathom a single idea why I wouldn't be able to hear Kaiten.

_Kaiten!_

There was only more silence.

I didn't know why he wasn't saying anything. Normally, Kaiten wouldn't miss a chance to harass me about anything.

I looked back to Freya, who was now only a foot away from me. Her voice melted in with the sound of the rain until I could finally make out some of her words.

"…vor! Trevor! Hang on!" she shouted.

I widened my eyes as Zidane came up behind her and pulled out a vial I had never seen before. It wasn't the light blue vial that the potions always were. This one was a shining silver and seemed to give off a more healing glow. I didn't know of anything in our inventory that could have described it.

_Wait… Didn't Zidane find an elixir back in the storage room in the last plaza?_

I stretched my hand to reach out for the vial, dragging my hand limply over my chest. I could feel the armor under my shirt covered with dents and scratches. I knew that it might have been getting more damaged than I had realized over my trek through Gaia, but this was more damaged than it should have been. That's when my hand ran over the other half of my chest…

I didn't feel anything wrong at first, what with my body being numb, but before too long, I could understand why Zidane and Freya were so panicked as they rushed to my side.

…There was a gaping hole where my lung should have been.

My hand fell into the hole, fitting inside the warm, bloody opening in my chest. I could feel ribs and bits of organ inside where my lung should have been. My eyes widened as I realized the incredible severity of my situation. My lung was gone, my hand was stuck inside my chest, and I was probably a few seconds away from death.

It was too much. As the feeling came back to my body, I could feel my cold hand inside my chest, as well as the rain falling straight through to the ground, indicating to me that there was an enormous crater in my chest, going all the way through.

My back arched and legs kicked pitifully as the horror rushed onto me, prompting me to let out a gurgled scream, mixed with what I know knew was blood seeping from my mouth. Zidane and Freya leapt onto me, trying desperately to save me in the last remaining seconds of my life.

_What the hell happened? What happened after I blacked out?_

XXXXXXXX

**Freya**

From our position, collapsed on the ground in the Burmecian Palace's Central Arena, all four of us were openly exposed to the falling rain.

True as this was, I could hardly feel it. Not only were Zidane and Vivi passed out on the ground, and possibly dying, Trevor had somehow withstood Beatrix's attack and was standing again, ready for another fight. However, the disturbing thing was that he didn't seem like himself. His eyes had shifted to the same blood-red color that they had taken on when he had gone berserk a few days before. I didn't know what he was doing, but I knew that something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

"It's been a while since I've gotten a real chance to fight," Trevor said as he flashed Beatrix a wicked grin. "Don't hold back on me. I want to enjoy this."

Beatrix, who had been staring in disbelief up until now, blinked away her confusion and addressed Trevor. "How are you standing?" she asked. "No one has ever withstood my Stock Break!"

"I just am," Trevor responded with a cocky smile. He took a short sword in hand and began twirling it by the cross guard.

Beatrix, the professional fighter that she was, quickly regained her composure. She held her sword before herself once again, ready to fight as long as was needed, it seemed.

For the short period that I have known Trevor, I could tell that he was a good person, if not a little careless. At first, he struck me as the kind of guy who wouldn't worry too much about his own problems, but would do whatever he could to help someone else with their problems. But now… he seemed completely different, like the only thing he cared about was combat and having fun at another's expense. He seemed…almost evil.

"Well, let's not waste anymore time standing around," Trevor said with a grin. "Shall we?"

Beatrix didn't even respond. Not verbally at least. She lowered her head and aimed her sword at Trevor's neck. She was apparently fighting defensively now, which at the moment, would have been the smartest thing for anyone to do. Who knew what Trevor was doing or how he was doing it. Beatrix's expression turned colder, showing more ability to concentrate in a moment's notice and deliver a deadly counter attack.

As Beatrix prepared for a longer fight, so did Trevor. He stepped back, holding both his short swords to his sides, leaving no defense for himself. Again, this was so unlike him. Trevor wasn't the most experienced fighter, but he at least understood the need for both offence and defense. Why he would go into such I stance, I couldn't guess. If he was just trying to lower Beatrix's expectations of how he would fight, then he was being extremely foolish.

However, he was up to something. The edges of his swords began glowing a light purple, almost like they were on fire. I understood this to be the kind of magic Trevor used, but I didn't know he could use it like this. Whatever he was doing, I had never seen anything like it before.

"I haven't been able to fight like this in waaay too long," Trevor said. "Do me a favor and don't die too quickly, ok?"

"Your arrogance is astounding," Beatrix retorted. She must have been tired of waiting for Trevor to attack because she ducked low into a crouch and launched herself at him. She kept her charge going by pumping her feet underneath herself as fast as she could apparently run.

Trevor didn't recoil from this. His smirk only grew, and for the first moment, I didn't know why. A second later, the flames building up on the edge of his swords flowed down into the tip of the weapon. They gathered into one collected sphere of energy, forming a large ball on each sword. Trevor began laughing, even as Beatrix came closer.

Beatrix's eyes widened as she ran the last few feet towards her target. Whatever Trevor's new attack was, had would have to use it soon.

"Too easy!" Beatrix announced as she prepared to stab Trevor through the gut.

However, her advance was soon halted. Trevor pulled back on his swords, sending them high over his head. He then thrust them back down into the ground, hard. The gathered energy expanded and was sent off into the ground, sending up a cloud of gravel and dust. Beatrix, seeing this at the last second, jumped to the side, avoiding the obvious smokescreen and any potential attack she could have received while in it.

Trevor pulled back his short sword, still holding a sphere of energy on one blade. "That one's called Explosion," he explained. "It's more effective when activated inside an opponent, although it's also much messier." Why he was describing things to his enemy like this, I didn't know. He seemed completely twisted now.

"You're…not like before, are you?" Beatrix asked, almost with a hint of hesitation. She quickly regained her composure, standing straight, with one hand on her sword, still pointed at Trevor. "Before, you were scared and hesitant. What did you do?"

Trevor just rolled his head back at her question, acting like he was insane. "I was possessed by an evil ghost," he explained, clearly being as apathetic as possible. "He's telling me to do very bad things." Trevor followed this up with a loud burst of laughter.

Beatrix scowled. She must have been too used to receiving fear on the battlefield. Trevor's acts of petty mockery were driving her on edge. "Killing you will bring me the greatest pleasure," she remarked. "I will remove you from this world."

"Do you even have depth perception?" Trevor asked, not staying on topic. "That mask over your eyes must make distance a real challenge. Ooh! That's why you missed me with that last attack, wasn't it? I guess you swung too early!"

"Shut UP!" Beatrix yelled, getting into another run. Her sword crackled with energy as she brought it closer to her chest, powering up another spell. The hilt of her sword became enshrouded in blue light, showing off her strongest magical attack.

Trevor just stood his ground, still smiling. If he didn't know what was coming next, he didn't show it, although considering what happened to Vivi, there was no way he couldn't have know. Instead, he just held out the short sword that still had energy waiting at the tip, pointing it at Beatrix.

As Trevor stood by, the Alexandrian General had finished gathering up the energy for her attack. She presented her sword and thrust it vertically at Trevor, launching her Shock spell at him.

Whatever the attack could have done to Trevor was quickly negated. The attack moved too quickly to be seen, but it didn't hit him, but instead hit his outstretched short sword. The energy in both attacks hit, causing a huge blast, nearly engulfing Trevor. The explosion didn't hit him, but he was knocked backwards. After being flung a few feet, Trevor quickly picked himself up, staying somewhat on guard at all times. Evidently, his newest attack, Explosion as he called it, could be used defensively as well as offensively.

"Boy, I didn't see that coming," he said. He swiped at a bit of mud clinging to his side, trying to get it off. "It really _has_ been a while since I've fought like this."

However, Beatrix wasn't listening to a thing Trevor had to say. She was already leaping into another attack, ready to push Trevor back into submission, or kill him. She swung her saber down into his defenses, cutting only a section of his shirt. Trevor barely stepped back in time, avoiding losing an arm. He spun out of Beatrix's range, though she caught up to him before he could put up an effective defense. They crossed blades, hanging their lethal edges only inches away from each other's faces.

"What the hell kind of magic do you use?" Beatrix asked, staying her blade by Trevor's. "I've seen dark things in my days, but there's something different about what you use."

Trevor, like so many times before, didn't answer Beatrix's question before smiling. He simply pressed harder against her, managing to keep her at bay with his swords crossed in front of himself. "Bitch, you haven't seen dark yet."

With one final push, Trevor somehow overpowered Beatrix, sending her backwards by only a foot. Apparently, that was enough. He brought his swords over his head, powering them up together at the same time. Energy crackled between the parallel blades like lightning.

"I call this one Fin!" Trevor announced, swinging his swords down. They hit the ground together, releasing the energy out in front of himself. Immediately, the gathered energy formed into a large fang, rising out of the ground. It sped out of the blades as soon as it was unleashed, giving Beatrix only a fraction of a second to react.

Fortunately for her, Beatrix was able to recover in time and jumped to the side, dodging the assault. Trevor's attack went speeding into a pile of rubble on the far side of the courtyard, slicing through the section of rubble it hit like butter before stopping briefly and exploding.

Beatrix turned to face Trevor, her expression marred with anger and astonishment.

"Is there any attack you have that doesn't result in an explosion?"

"Well, I suppose I _could_ just cut you with a blade," Trevor smirked.

Ignoring any other kind of remark she could have made, Beatrix dash forward again, intent on slashing Trevor to ribbons. Her blade swung low, coming up in a diagonal arc. Trevor easily caught this between the blade and hilt of his short sword. Beatrix then spun around, bringing the attack in the same way from the other side. Again, Trevor blocked.

Beatrix went into a quick series of slashes and cuts, aiming for Trevor's chest and throat. Each time she swung, Trevor blocked her. It seemed like his defense was impeccable. No matter what she tried, Beatrix couldn't land a hit on the dual-wielding student.

As the two of them were fighting, I suddenly realized that Zidane and Vivi were around as well, injured as they laid on the ground, blood collecting around them. Trevor had Beatrix distracted, so I had to keep the other two members of our party from dying. I tried to stand, but found that my legs wouldn't move. They must have been damaged when I hit the wall after the second Climmhazard attack from Beatrix. I pulled myself forward with my arms and slowly crawled to Zidane.

The front of his shirt was stained in blood. His face was contorted, twisted in pain. At the very least, his chest was pulsing quickly, indicating that he was alive, if only barely. I reached down to the pouch at his side and pulled out two potions. Uncorking one, I poured it into Zidane's mouth. I couldn't tell if he was conscious or not, but he drank it all the same. The potion quickly worked and Zidane's breathing slowed down, becoming less erratic and panicked. He was still unconscious, but he wasn't bleeding anymore at the moment and seemed like he would make it.

Meanwhile, Trevor and Beatrix were still going at it like never before. Beatrix threw one more swing at Trevor, only to have it blocked and trapped between Trevor's twin blades. She closed the distance between herself and Trevor, glaring at him hatefully.

"I don't know who you are or how you became so much stronger so quickly, but I am going to kill you!" Beatrix threatened.

"Oh are you?" Trevor responded, giving Beatrix a cocky grin.

"Yes," Beatrix said, before pulling her sword back. The sudden friction of the blades made for a perfect conduit for an attack. In a sudden burst of light and heat, Beatrix released a Climmhazard right in Trevor's face, knocking him backwards and sending him to his knees. Trevor recovered just in time to see Beatrix aiming her saber straight at his chest.

With one strong push, Beatrix managed to send her blade right into Trevor, piercing his right lung. The longhaired fighter could only kneel, stunned in what had happened to him.

"Now fall like all the others," Beatrix commanded, pulling her sword out. She flicked the blade once before sheathing it and turned away.

Trevor was pulled onto his hands and knees when Beatrix pulled her sword out of his chest. Blood seeped through his shirt and slowly pooled onto the pavement on the ground. Trevor began breathing quickly, suddenly going into shock. He clenched his hand, tightly shaking them as the blood seemed to enter and fill his lungs. I would have tried to help him then, but I knew that if I moved, Beatrix would turn on the rest of us and make sure we were dead. Our best bet was to lie still and help Trevor as soon as General Beatrix was gone.

However, Trevor didn't seem to feel the same way. As Beatrix neared the exit, Trevor, against all odds, stood up once more.

"You're just going to run like that, huh?" he taunted. Beatrix stopped in mid-step. She turned around to face him, eyes wide in disbelief.

"How-"

"You really don't know what you're dealing with, do you?" Trevor said in an aggravated tone. Holding his swords in one hand and the wound on his chest in the other, he easily made his way over to Zidane. He knelt down, opening a pouch on Zidane's hip and pulling out a pair of potion vials.

As he closed the pouch, Trevor glanced over to me, not moving his head. He gave me a wink. I assumed it meant that he knew the rest of us were alive and that I was just pretending to be dead for the moment. Why he was prolonging this fight and putting the rest of us at risk of death, I didn't know. Zidane and Vivi were still unconscious and I was in no state to fight. Whatever Trevor was doing, he had better have a good reason for it. If Zidane or Vivi died because he took too long to heal them, I would never forgive him.

Drinking the two potions simultaneously, the blood stopped dripping from Trevor's chest. The wound closed on his chest and he threw the two vials across the ground, letting them smash on the ground a few feet away.

Preparing for battle again, Trevor tossed one short sword in the air and caught it in his free hand. His swords were both lit with the same light and energy as they were before. Soon, another pair of spheres had gathered at their tips.

"Ready for round two?" he smirked.

The enraged general just looked at Trevor with a fierceness I had only heard about before. She lowered her head and stared with a deadly glare, making her look more like a feral beast than a human.

Instead of charging straight for Trevor, Beatrix quickly regained her composure. She pressed her hand to her chest and gathered energy into it. Trevor didn't do anything to stop the assault he had to know was coming. This was General Beatrix after all.

As Beatrix finished her preparation, she took a step forward. She held her saber back for a moment before swinging her hand down, launching the attack. A thick beam of blue light came from her hands, formed of chain-link energy. The attack spun forward, heading straight for her opponent.

Trevor, however, just smiled. As soon as Beatrix launched Holy, he brought his swords up and clapped them together, forcing the energy out of them. The two spheres came together and spiraled alongside each other like a tornado, aiming towards Beatrix. The attack never made it to Beatrix, but then again, I don't believe that it was ever intended to. Instead, they ran head on into the oncoming ribbon-like Holy and negated it, resulting in an enormous explosion as the two spells blew each other up.

Despite the tense moment currently between, Beatrix didn't do a thing to slow down. She used her momentum from the last attack to charge forward at Trevor again. Despite my travels throughout Gaia, I had never seen attacks as powerful as the ones these two were using. I desperately hoped that Trevor knew what he was doing. I could tell before that he wasn't as experienced as Zidane and myself in combat, but now I wasn't sure what he was. I stayed back and hoped desperately that he didn't get hurt.

As Beatrix closed the distance between herself and Trevor, she raised her sword above her head. With a quick slash, she brought the blade down. Several ribbons of light emerged from the tip of her blade. I remembered this attack. Beatrix had called it Stock Break before. She wasn't as close to Trevor as the last time she had used it—and who could blame her—but it was still close enough to do some serious damage when it hit.

Instead of smiling this time, Trevor just brought his swords to his sides, crossing his arms over his chest to do so. The next attack headed right for him, but rather than move, he just swung one of his short swords at the oncoming ribbon. As he swung, a small, crescent shaped disk, probably the size of the blade itself, was emitted from the blade and flew right into the beam that was headed towards him. Trevor's attack cut into Beatrix's, dissipating it upon contact. The Alexandrian general didn't let this stop her though, as she launched more and more of the light at the longhaired fighter.

With each new beam, Trevor swung again, throwing another attack at Beatrix. Their attacks came so quickly and so heavily that it was almost like watching the stars themselves fighting each other.

Finally, as the last of Beatrix's assault was destroyed, Trevor held his swords at his sides, standing triumphantly, but calmly.

"This has gone on long enough," he said. "Thanks for the practice, but I really need to end this before too long."

Beatrix just glared at Trevor in twisted rage. "You dare to talk to me like that you-"

She was cut off as Trevor bent down for a moment, only to launch forward at Beatrix with amazing agility. He came in low, swinging a sword at Beatrix's legs and following up with a strike to her shoulder. Beatrix managed to block the attack to her legs and deflected the swing at her shoulders with her sword's hilt, but with Trevor so close and armed with shorter weapons, she was at a clear disadvantage.

Trevor knew this to and kept himself too close for Beatrix to counterattack. He pressed forward, constantly attacking a joint or a limb on Beatrix's body. The experienced general knew what he was doing though and was able to block or parry every of Trevor's attacks cleanly.

It didn't look like there was any end in sight. Trevor would press forward and Beatrix would deflect. It just went back and forth as the two fighters went at it. It was almost mesmerizing.

I was sure Trevor would win if he kept this up, but I was wrong. If I hadn't seen this next part, I wouldn't have believed it.

As Trevor swung his blades at Beatrix, she apparently got used to it. She managed to predict where Trevor was going to make another swing at her legs and blocked it early, throwing him off balance. As Trevor struggled to regain himself quickly, Beatrix took the opportunity and plunged her sword into Trevor's stomach. It sank deep, but was pushed farther as she knocked Trevor back and vaulted over him, using her weight to push the blade even further into his gut. When she landed, Beatrix made it a point to get away.

Trevor would have none of this however. While on his back, he pulled a short sword back and swung it at Beatrix, releasing another crescent disk at her. Beatrix, with her back to Trevor, didn't see the attack in time and was hit in the back, resulting in a small explosion. The energy sliced into her back, charring away at the flesh and leaving her with a bloodied mess. She fell to the ground and landed on her back to the air.

Trevor, seeming to not notice the wound in his stomach, stood up and walked over to his fallen foe. She wasn't dead by any means, as her subtle thrashing gave away, but she was injured, something I could only dream about before now.

"Well," Trevor said with a chuckle as he came to stand over Beatrix's form. "That certainly took longer than I thought." He kicked her sword away, ensuring his victory.

Beatrix flipped over so she was lying on her back. She looked up at Trevor in a contorted gaze of anger. She grit her teeth, signaling her refusal to surrender. She raised her hand while it was glowing white. It was a healing spell. If she was to cast that, Trevor probably wouldn't be able to fight her down again.

That's why he stopped her.

Trevor slapped her hand away with the flat of his blade, halting the spell's effect. Beatrix tried to raise herself up to grab at Trevor's sword, or throat, I couldn't tell which, but he just kicked her back down and stood on her shoulder to keep her down.

"Sorry about this," he said. "But I don't like to be bested. It's not good for my reputation."

"Then get over yourself!" Beatrix retorted quickly. She raised her hand again and sent out a bolt of light as a Holy spell ran through the air.

Sadly for her, she missed. Trevor was too quick and managed to dodge just in time. He countered by sending a short sword into her hand, cutting her palm deeply. Bloody seeped out and Beatrix clutched it in pain.

"Still dangerous, aren't you?" he asked calmly, despite almost having his head taken off by the spell. "I like that. I'll make sure you get the credit you deserve from this fight."

Trevor smirked as he raised his short sword back, ready to strike. Beatrix only looked on, but didn't flinch. She only held herself calmly as she waited for Trevor to strike.

"Goodbye, dear General," Trevor said in one last taunt.

As Trevor swung, a spray of blood came out and seemed to cover everything around, like a small fountain. However, it wasn't Beatrix's blood.

"That's enough of that."

As the new voice came over the sound of rain, a new blast echoed through the arena. A huge beam of light came in the form of a new Holy spell and shot straight through Trevor's chest, halting his attack. The stunned warrior dropped his swords as his mouth hung open. As he looked down, he saw that an enormous hole had destroyed his lung and taken out most of the right side of his chest. He drew a hand across himself, as if in disbelief, before finally collapsing to the ground at the feet of his newest assailant. Trevor's eyes fluttered briefly before shutting closed at last.

The new attacker revealed himself to Beatrix, offering a hand down to help her up. His white hair dripped from the rain and reached the middle of his back, looking more like feathers than real hair. He was oddly dressed, mostly in white, but with a purple chest piece and shoulder armor. His stomach was exposed, as was the small of his back, revealing his pale skin. He wore an open sheet at his waist, which made it look almost like a skirt. Finally, there were his boots, which came up to his knees in a dark black color with metal fittings at the sole and top of his feet. I didn't know who this man was, but I could tell he was extremely dangerous.

"You look like you needed some help General," he offered. "Are you sure you're not losing your touch?"

"I'll be fine Kuja," Beatrix said, picking herself up without his help. The wound on her back was still open, but Beatrix cast a healing spell on herself and it managed to patch itself together.

"Her Highness will want us to leave for Cleyra immediately," she said. "Let's go."

Beatrix gave one last look at Trevor's fallen, mangled form before picking up her sword and leaving the arena.

This new person however, Kuja as Beatrix called him, stayed behind for a moment, looking the rest of us over. A large dragon flew in from the open ceiling in the arena, landing on the other side of the courtyard. The man didn't pay it any mind, too absorbed in examining us for some reason.

"Now what do we have here?" he said to himself. "Another filthy rat," I laid as still as I could as he looked down at me. "A rather interesting fighter in this one," he said as he passed Trevor's heavily bleeding corpse. "And… Hmm…" he paused as he looked down as Zidane. "This boy could become a problem."

Kuja gazed at Zidane for another minute before pulling the hair back on his head. Raindrops fluttered from his hair, only to be replaced by more from the sky. He turned away, heading towards the dragon. I lifted my head to see what he was doing, but doing so proved to be a chore. Even though I had taken a potion before all this, it was still really hard to move.

I watched as Kuja mounted the dragon, sitting just behind the monster's neck. The dragon quickly spread its wings and leapt into the air, taking flight immediately. I covered my face with my hand as the rain splashed over me from the dragon's flight. The two faded away into the light above, leaving the rest of us alone to recover. Abnormal as the behavior was, I wasn't going to complain on such a chance to survive.

Using what little strength I had left, I picked myself up by Zidane's side. Weakly reaching out to him, I took hold of his face and shook him. It didn't take long for him to rouse fortunately. I was glad that I had given him a potion before. Still, mine seemed to be wearing off, so I felt really weak. I wasn't hurt, but I was growing sleepy; something I couldn't do until everyone else was safe from death. Right now though, my main concerns were reviving Trevor and Vivi. Neither of them looked good.

"Zidane, wake up!" I nearly shouted. My hand slipped and pulled half of Zidane's face into a puddle. Fortunately, this seemed to do it as he opened his eyes soon afterwards. He blinked a few times before letting out a pained groan. Zidane flipped himself onto his side and faced me.

"Freya? …What happened?" he asked.

If the shock he had endured at Beatrix's hand wasn't so severe, I would have slapped him.

"We fell in battle…" I said as I felt my head lower in sleepiness again. "Trevor fought her alone though and got mortally wounded."

Zidane's eyes widened at hearing this. "What?" The thief looked around wildly for a moment before finding the fallen student just a few feet away. He hadn't moved from his position and his chest was still bleeding heavily.

Zidane didn't ask any questions about how it had happened or even why Trevor had or was able to fight Beatrix alone. Instead, he felt inside one of the pouches at his hip and pulled out the elixir we had found earlier. Zidane was obviously not feeling completely healed since he only crawled over to Trevor's side.

"Trevor!" Zidane cried out desperately. "Wake up! Don't die on us!"

I thought it a sad sight to see one friend trying to hard to save a friend who was as good as dead, but I sympathized with Zidane. I began pulling myself along on my hands to Trevor's side as well. "Trevor! Hang on!" I cried out as well.

Our yelling must have done something for him because seconds later, Trevor took a huge breath of air in. He spent a few seconds staring straight up, letting the rain pat his hair against his face, before turning his head to the side. What struck me as odd was that he didn't look like his knew what we were so worried about. How could he not remember going against Beatrix and getting his chest blown apart?

"Trevor!" Zidane called out again, but Trevor didn't seem to respond.

"Trevor!" I tried again. "Trevor, hang on!"

His gaze went from me to Zidane to the elixir in Zidane's hand. Weakly, he brought his hand up and tried to reach out for the mixture, but could only drag it along his chest. I tried to tell him to stop before his got his hand stuck inside his chest, but before I could, he gave one last push of energy, passing his hand over the wound. His left hand fell into his chest, but he seemed dumbly unaware of it. It was only a moment later that he looked down and realized what was going on. Trevor's eyes widened in shock, terror and pain. His breathing became shorter and more panicked and he began kicking at the ground, trying to get a foothold he would never get. He could only thrash pitifully in the puddle made of rainwater and his blood. He had seconds to live, at most.

"No!" Zidane yelled. He jumped on top of Zidane to get him to stop thrashing and carefully yanked his hand free of his chest. Using his legs to pin his arms and his weight to keep Trevor's body from moving around too much, Zidane popped open the elixir and forced the bottle into Trevor's mouth. It seemed a little crude at first, but Trevor had to take every drop. Forcing the bottle into his mouth like that was the best way to ensure his survival.

After a few seconds, Trevor was still kicking his legs in a panicked motion, but he was apparently drinking the elixir, which was all the mattered at the moment. He was so weak that all he could do was take quick, scared breaths inwards. It worked inasmuch as making him take the medicine mattered.

As Trevor's last few seconds of life seemed at hand, the elixir finally began to work. Despite his struggle, he had taken the entire vial and was beginning to calm down. His thrashing declined and I cold hear a sickening sticky sound coming from his chest. The organ, muscle and skin where the wound had been were healing. Bits and pieces formed at the edge of the wound and patched themselves from the outside in. In a matter of seconds, his wound had closed and all he was left with was a torn open shirt and ruined armor.

With his chest healed, Trevor was able to calm down a little. He brought a shivering hand up to the vial in his mouth and pulled it out.

"Zi…Zidane…" he tried to say weakly.

"What is it Trevor?" he responded, leaning in closer.

"…If you're not careful…and you pin me down like that… the fangirls will start squealing…" he chuckled pitifully. It was safe to say he was back to normal.

Zidane raised an eyebrow and recoiled. He pulled himself off of his friend and pulled out another pair of potions.

"Trevor, you're the fastest right now, so you need to give these to Vivi," Zidane explained.

Trevor's eyes widened as he realized the situation was still dire. Sitting up quickly, Trevor took the potions without a word and turned around, seeing Vivi on the other side of the courtyard. He picked himself up and started right into an awkward run. I assumed that he was still getting used to his new lung. Still, he managed to make it to Vivi well enough and picked the little mage up in his arms. He opened the vials one after the other and brought them to Vivi's mouth, allowing him to drink.

I had my doubts about Vivi being able to live after being in that condition for so long, but I heard a distinct coughing sound after a few seconds. Vivi had drunk the first vial and was working on the second one when Zidane and myself began making our ways over to them. Weakly, I grabbed my spear, which had been knocked out of my hand during the fight and had landed among the rubble where I had landed. If we used too many potions now, we'd be in trouble later if we really needed them. I still had one trick I knew which could save us now.

With Vivi revived, Trevor picked him up and carried him over to the rest of us. He kneeled down as Zidane and I pulled ourselves up and sat around him, letting Vivi down to stand on his own in the process.

"Are you guys going to be okay?" Trevor asked.

"We'll be fine." I said. "Just stay near me." I hoisted my spear up. I knew our best chance at fully recovering depended on this working, so I focused my energy as much as I could. A calming sensation seemed to spring forth from the spear itself as I gathered the healing magic within it.

"Reis's Wind," I called forth.

As the spell took effect, a pair of translucent green dragons sprung forth from the ground. As they passed us on their way up, the ground seemed to bring new life with it, and with that new life came a healing effect. A thin layer of green light settled over the area and onto ourselves, healing us with its touch. Already, I was beginning to feel at ease. My weariness was leaving me and I felt almost completely healed. Looking around, the same thing appeared to be happening to the others.

"Does that take care of everyone?" I asked. After getting a round of nods, I stood up. Zidane and Trevor followed suit. However, my legs seemed to buckle when I put my weight upon them.

"Can you stand Freya?" Zidane asked.

I just brushed him off with a wave. "It is nothing," I told him. I leaned on my spear for support.

"So, what do we do now?" Zidane asked. "The King of Burmecia is still alive."

"We'll need to find him," I responded. "And when we do, we'll need to build an effective resistance against Brahne's next attack."

"To Cleyra then?" Trevor asked.

I was taken back by his knowledge of where to go. Zidane and I knew where he was by listening in to Brahne's conversation with Beatrix and Kuja before the fight had started, but I didn't know why Trevor did.

"Yes, but how did you know that?" I answered and asked at the same time.

"Uh…" Trevor said at first. I took it that he was just tired. "I, uh… I learned about the history between Burmecia and Cleyra a while back in a history class," he explained. "Considering the situation, I think Cleyra would give the King of Burmecia clearance into their city, despite their touchy pasts."

As soon as he answered, Trevor gave an upward gaze to himself, along with a scowl. It was almost like he was angry at himself for not being prepared to answer the question in a timely matter. It didn't matter though, so I paid it no mind.

"Uh, um…" Vivi began.

"What is it Vivi?" I asked.

"Do you think well learn more about those mages if we go to Cleyra?" he asked.

"Yeah," Zidane said. "I think we'll learn a lot about them as long as we follow Brahne and that Kuja guy."

"Okay, I'm going with you," Vivi said confidently. It seemed Trevor's influence upon him really was having a continuous effect. I made a note to repay Trevor for it when this was all finished.

"Oh," Vivi began again. "What about the princess?" he asked.

"Dagger?" Zidane asked. "I'd never forget about her! She might not be here in Burmecia, but I know we'll find her soon."

"Confident, aren't you?" Trevor asked.

"It's what helps me sleep at night," Zidane joked back.

With our party healed again and our destination set, Zidane took point and started out of the arena first. "Well, let's move out!" he called out to the rest of us.

Vivi and I followed closely. I leaned on my spear as I walked, still having a bit of a shake in my legs. Vivi didn't seem to have much trouble, short of a small limp. Zidane was walking along without any apparent trouble at all. But Trevor…

Trevor had fallen behind. As we reached the exit to the arena, I turned around to see that he had only made it about halfway.

"Trevor, are you alright?" I called back.

He didn't answer. Instead, he just fell to the ground, gripping both sides of his head in agony. It didn't take a master engineer to see that something was wrong.

"Trevor!" I called, dropping my spear as I ran to his side. Zidane and Vivi stopped walking and turned around to see what was wrong, then ran back as well.

Trevor was practically clawing at the sides of his head, digging his fingernails into his temples. His face was twisted in horrified pain.

"My head…" he practically whimpered. "It's killing me."

Whatever was happening to Trevor had happened before. I recalled him complaining about his head hurting severely when he broke off from the rest of us after leaving Lindblum.

What was going wrong with him?

As the possibilities filled my mind, I remembered that Trevor had a lot of water fall into his lung as it was healing. I had hoped that the elixir would have negated the extra water, but apparently, it was just a foolish hope. I didn't know one thing, but my experience as a military fighter told me one thing.

Trevor was dying again.

XXXXXXXX

I know, I'm a bastard for taking so long to update, only to leave you with another cliffhanger. Sorry. XP At least the chapter was nice and long, right?

I'll do what I can to make the next update happen much faster, but with so many writing assignments (usually 4 a week), it'll be tricky. Still, long, enthusiastic reviews always make me want to write more, so by doing that, you'll help speed things up. I'll start writing the next chapter now, ok? I don't leave people hanging on these stories for so long because I like to. Blame my stupid major for having so much reading and writing involved.

Oh, and I've finally figured out how to get the polls working on the site, so if the National Primaries have you worked up, jump over to my profile page. At the top of the page is a link to this month's poll. Go ahead and relieve your voting stress by voting for something you care about and that you don't have to wait another few months to do anything about.

I wanted to point out one thing though. Some people might have thought that Kaiten was too powerful in this fight, as I know it seemed as I was writing it. I just wanted to point out that he did become a first lieutenant in the top special forces group on Terra by the time he was 20, so that has to count for something.

And speaking of Kaiten, I hope everyone enjoyed his Chi spells. The ones displayed in the chapter here are not all of them. Just be patient.

**SPOILER WARNING! IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SPOILERS, TURN AWAY NOW!**. Not only does Kaiten have an array of attacks, but Trevor gets to learn some and develops some on his own. You'll just have to wait and see what they are, ok?


	2. Waken From a Nightmare

Disclaimer- I don't own the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's Note: Well, my classes have slowed down for Spring Break and I've decided to try to get some work done on a long overdue chapter. I know that my last few updates have been a little erratic, so to counter this, I've made a live journal account where I'll post my progress on my newest chapters weekly, as well as complain about classes/morons I have to put up with/etc, and all that kind of stuff. There's a link in my profile.

Next, I have to give a big thanks to everyone who left constructive criticism for me from the last chapter. All of it was helpful in one way or another, so thanks to everyone for doing that. :D I implore that you keep it up since it's so helpful. I really appreciate it.

Next, I have wonderful news! NewtThatGotBetter has submitted some drawings of her own, which I thought were really good. Along with the artwork Yuleen75, that brings the total count up to 3, which is more than I ever thought I'd get for this story. :P Here are some links so everyone can enjoy them.

http: /i251. photobucket. com/albums/ gg311/NewtThatGotBetter ?t=1205390298

http: /i251. photobucket. com/albums/ gg311/NewtThatGotBetter ?t=1205390277

Other than that, I hope you find this next chapter interesting. I tried doing something a little different, so you might want to refer to the last section of the last chapter (after Trevor was healed) to refresh what happened. I'd post a recap, but it would be over 1000 words, and I thought that might be a little wasteful of space.

Either way, I hope you enjoy the next chapter of Shattered Mind: Anger.

Chapter 2- Waken from a Nightmare

XXXXXXXX

_What the hell happened? _I pondered to myself._ What happened after I blacked out?_

As I lay on my back in the rain, the weight of the situation hit me like a truck. My lung was blasted open, I was dying, and Kaiten wasn't anywhere as far as I could tell. I knew Zidane was coming to help with an elixir, which should heal me completely, but I couldn't help at my fearful thrashing.

"No!" I heard Zidane call out. Before I knew what happened, he had jumped on top of me and was pinning my arms down. With what little awareness I had left, I saw him open the vial of the elixir and place it against my mouth. I bit down on it, knowing that my only chance of survival depended on actually drinking this stuff. Fortunately, it didn't taste bad. It was something along the lines of over-sugared Sprite. I drank it, knowing full well that if I didn't, I would die and I wouldn't be able to help anyone else again.

Even before I finished drinking the entire vial, I felt it beginning to work. My lung began to reform, but it was extremely uncomfortable. It felt more like my organs themselves were shifting around inside my chest. I could feel the motion like friction of my new lung brushing against the muscle and sinew pressed against it. I silently prayed that I wouldn't be able to remember this after a short while. This was going to keep me distracted for some time.

As I drank the last few drops of the elixir, I felt the rain coming down against the newly regenerated skin on my chest. I gasped heavily, relieved to be back to normal and that I wasn't going to die. I could still feel my lung moving inside my chest, but I did what I could to ignore it. My new lung felt cold, unused, but I tried to link that to the cold air wafting around us and ignore the uncomfortable sensation.

Now, fully healed, I brought my hand up and took the vial from my mouth. Zidane didn't give any resistance and let me toss it aside.

"Zi…Zidane…" I said weakly, trying the words slowly.

"What is it Trevor?" he asked. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and leaned closer. A thought came to mind about what we must have looked like. Creepy as it was, I couldn't help but crack a smile at the absurdity of it.

""…If you're not careful…and you pin me down like that… the fangirls will start squealing…" I laughed softly. My voice sounded like it was mixed with gravel. I saw Zidane raise an eyebrow before pulling himself off of me.

I placed a hand over my lung, pressing against it lightly to make sure it didn't hurt at all. Surprisingly, there wasn't any pain. Not only was there no pain in my lung, but I didn't hurt anywhere. The elixir really had restored me to perfect health. As I relished in my newfound health, I heard a clinking sound, like glass. I looked over and saw Zidane pulling out a pair of potions and offering them to me.

"Trevor, you're the fastest right now, so you need to give these to Vivi," Zidane said.

I sat up with surprising ease. Turning around, I saw that Vivi was still bleeding on the ground across the courtyard. I would have yelled at them for not telling me sooner, but I didn't see the point. Reacting quickly, I grabbed the potions out of Zidane's hands and rushed towards the little mage's side.

_Dammit Vivi,_ I thought as I ran. _Be okay._

"_God…DAMMIT!_" came a voice harshly and suddenly. It surprised me so much that I actually stumbled a little bit as I ran.

_Kaiten?_ I asked as I recovered. _Is that you?_

"_That fight was MINE!_" he yelled.

_Fight? What fight?_

"_If that bastard hadn't interfered…_" Kaiten continued.

I didn't know what Kaiten was talking about or what had happened. Apparently, he had gotten into a fight, using my body again. I would have to ask him about it later, but for now, saving Vivi was all that was on my mind.

I stooped low as I reached the mage. His eyes were shut and all that was left of the wound on his chest was a bleeding dent mixed with cloth from his jacket. Lucky for him though, his jacket was still in one piece. I was going to have to buy a new shirt sometime later.

"C'mon Vivi," I pleaded as I picked him up in my arms. I cradled him carefully, making sure not to irritate the wound on his chest. "Just be alright."

I popped open one of the potion vials and placed it against where I assumed his mouth was. It was hard to tell since his head was just a large, featureless black ball when his eyes were closed. Fortunately, I guessed right. Vivi showed signs of consciousness and began drinking. When he was finished with the first vial he opened his eyes. He blinked softly a few times before looking up at me weakly.

"…Trevor…" he said softly.

"Not now," I said, opening the second potion. "Just drink this."

I offered the second vial to Vivi and he drank it, same as the first. He coughed a little, drinking a little too fast. I guess I let myself get too worried about him and forced him to drink too quickly.

"Ohh…" Vivi moaned as he finished the potion.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"I don't like the way potions taste," he said with his eyes half open.

I laughed at this. Vivi was still a little weak and would need more attention, but he wasn't going to die for now, which was all we needed at the moment. I picked him up and carried him over to the others. Zidane and Freya had managed to crawl a little closer to Vivi and myself. I walked towards them and met them halfway. Zidane was sitting up on his knees and Freya was holding herself up on her spear.

"Are you guys going to be okay?" I had to ask.

"We'll be fine. Just stay near me," Freya instructed. I nodded and kneeled, letting Vivi down. He had recovered enough to stand on his own, but I let him lean against me anyway. He seemed tired after all.

As we sat still, Freya swung her spear over my head. As she finished, a green light grew on the ground beneath our feet. A pair of green, translucent dragons shot out of the ground, heading up into the air. As they flew, a light green light covered over us, healing the others. I wasn't hurt anymore, so I only felt a warm sensation coming over me, like a blanket. The spell lasted a few seconds before fading.

I knew this was Freya's spell, Reis's Wind. With it, everyone else would be healed a little and would be doing a little better.

"Does that take care of everyone?" Freya asked. She stood up shakily and leaned on her spear for support.

"Can you stand Freya?" Zidane asked. He was able to stand better than her and Vivi didn't seem to have any problems of his own.

"It is nothing," the proud Burmecian said. She rose to her feet and was able to stand well enough, but kept her spear close for support.

"So what do we do now?" Zidane asked. "The King of Burmecia is still alive."

"We'll need to find him," Freya replied. "And when we do, we'll need to build an effective resistance against Brahne's next attack."

"To Cleyra then?" I asked. I didn't know I had made a mistake until Zidane and Freya gave me a curious look.

"Yes, but how did you know that?" Freya asked.

I had forgotten, in the game, the player only knew that Cleyra was the next destination when seeing a cut-scene from Zidane and Freya's perspective. Since I wasn't there when that info was given out, there wasn't supposed to be any way for me to know that.

"Uh…" I began nervously. "I, uh… I learned about the history between Burmecia and Cleyra a while back in a history class. Considering the situation, I think Cleyra would give the King of Burmecia clearance into their city, despite their touchy pasts."

I stood rigid, frozen in fear in that the others might start suspecting something. I hoped that they would buy my continuing lie about being a student at Alexandria University.

"_So you're already back to screwing up?_" came a condescending voice.

_Shut up Kaiten,_ I said to him, rolling my eyes up to my head reflexively.

"_It's bad enough that I lost that fight, but now you need to start rubbing it in with your own failures!_"

_Do you ever stop?_

"Uh, um…" I heard Vivi stutter, breaking me from my thoughts.

"What is it Vivi?" Freya asked. She lowered herself and put a hand on the little mage's shoulder.

"Do you think well learn more about those mages if we go to Cleyra?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah," Zidane said. "I think we'll learn a lot about them as long as we follow Brahne and that Kuja guy."

"Okay, I'm going with you," Vivi said confidently. I noticed the confident smile Vivi seemed to have. He seemed different from what I remembered him acting as from the game. Maybe it was because I was here. I chuckled to myself at the thought. My ego could have used the boost though.

"Oh," Vivi began again. "What about the princess?"

"Dagger?" Zidane asked. He stopped for a moment and folded his arms across his chest confidently. "I'd never forget about her!" he said. "She might not be here in Burmecia, but I know we'll find her soon."

"Confident, aren't you?" I joked. Zidane always seemed so full of optimism and life. I could see why so many people looked up to him for inspiration, myself included.

"It's what helps me sleep at night," Zidane joked back. We both had a small laugh at this until the thief began walking forward, heading out of the arena. "Well, let's move out!" he called to the rest of us.

Vivi ran to catch up to Zidane's heel and Freya pressed herself onward, not wanting to be the last one out. I couldn't help but sigh in relief that we had all made it through that fight alive. Watching the others leave, I began to move myself.

As I walked, I felt the cold air press against my chest. I cupped my hand over the hole in my shirt, remembering the wound I had gotten. My chest was soaked and freezing from the rain and wind, but it left me wondering what had happened. Even the armor Wayne had crafted for me had been destroyed. I could see the effect of the attack that had apparently been used against me. The armor had been forced outwards, like it had been ripped out. Whatever happened, I had to know so I could avoid it in the future.

_Kaiten_, I began. At this point, he was the only person I could go to. I knew he had to have taken over my body again from his earlier talk of losing a fight. I didn't want to talk to the others about what happened because they might get suspicious of my ignorance. I didn't need them poking around my business to find out what was wrong.

_Kaiten,_ I tried again. _What happened earlier? You mentioned a fight._

"_Oh, _that," Kaiten began snidely. "_Why would you want to know that_?"

_So I could know what happened_, I explained. _If the others ask me about it, telling them that I just blacked out for the whole thing would raise suspicions._

"_So then make something up_," he suggested. "_Tell a lie. Do whatever_."

_I'd like to avoid lying to my friends more than I have to._

There was a moment of silence before I heard Kaiten sigh. He was clearly aggravated about something, although I thought he was more professional than this. A single loss shouldn't have bothered him this much. Maybe it was because I had expected to lose, but I didn't see what the big deal was. The important thing was that we were all alive and well enough to continue traveling.

"_Fine_," Kaiten finally said. "_If you want to know so badly, I'll show you_."

If I had been given enough time to react, I would have asked Kaiten what he was talking about. But before I had the chance to, a rush of images came at me. They were projected in my mind like a movie, flashing past. Each minute felt like a blip of time, showing me all I had to see in that instant. I saw Kaiten standing up again, using my body after Beatrix had knocked me down. Kaiten unleashed a flurry of attacks I had no idea he could do as Beatrix struggled to keep up with him. Blow for blow was traded back and forth until Beatrix had finally been beaten in the end. Then, as Kaiten stood over her, I saw a massive Holy spell blast though his chest, or rather my chest. It explained what had happened, but I had no idea how I was going to explain me being able to answer any questions the others had about my fighting like that. The whole thing was like a surreal nightmare.

As the images left, I felt a rush go by me, like a sudden wind. I couldn't help the array of questions that I still had for Kaiten, but I didn't get a chance to ask. As soon as the images of Kaiten's memory left me, a pulse of pain hit my head. I felt it quickly grow in intensity until it felt like a huge air bubble was swelling in my head. It was much like the pain I had felt when Kaiten first took over my body. I grabbed the sides of my head, clawing at the temples in a desperate attempt to get the pain to die down. It soon became so intense that it forced me to the ground.

"Trevor!" I heard Freya call out suddenly. I didn't need to turn my head up to know that she and the others had run up to my side. I could hear them just fine, but moving my eyes and head hurt too much for me to do.

"My head…" I started. "It's killing me…"

As my headache intensified, my vision blurred. Everything became fuzzy as I collapsed onto my stomach, still clawing at my head. The taste of bile rose in the back of my mouth as I held back a scream.

"We've got to get him out of here," Zidane said. "We need a doctor. There might still be one in town!"

"No, don't move him!" Freya argued. "I think he just has too much water inside his lungs."

"Then what about his head? He says it hurts!"

"I…I don't know," Freya said hesitantly. "But we need to-"

I interrupted Freya unintentionally by vomiting. I heard the two of them stop talking, presumably to see how I was doing. As graceless as it was I instantly felt the pressure leave my head, expelling the pain.

"Trevor?" Zidane asked carefully. "Are you alright?"

I responded by vomiting once more before picking myself up on my shaking arms. I looked down and saw that I had coughed up mostly blood and water, no doubt from the injuries I had sustained while Kaiten was fighting. I pushed myself away from the mess and fell onto my back straining to calm myself.

"Yeah…" I said slowly at first to answer Zidane. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I looked up as a raindrop fell into my eye. I did a quick mental check of myself to make sure I was alright. After a few short seconds, I knew that I didn't ache anywhere, there wasn't any pain in my body and I could breath easily. As far as I could tell, I was fine.

As the rain collected on my face, I saw Zidane offer a hand to help me up. I took it and was on my feet in a second. I just looked at the others and tried to avert my eyes in order to avoid any questions they might have had. If the display from the last few minutes wasn't a sign that something was wrong with me, I didn't know what was.

"Ok guys, we might as well head out," I suggested as I walked to the exit.

"Hold it!" Freya called out from behind me. I froze, worried that she had finally noticed something. She always did seem like the most observant of our group. Curse her years of military training!

"Freya, I'm fine," I insisted as I tuned to face the others.

"Not after a reaction like that," she said forcefully. "You need to take it easy."

"But we need to get to Cleyra as soon as possible," I argued. "I'll be fine. I took an elixir, remember?"

"And threw up after it!" she pointed out.

"You really should just relax Trevor," Zidane agreed. My shoulders slumped as I heard him take Freya's side against me.

"Ugh, not you too Zidane."

"Hey, after coughing up that much blood, you should be amazed that you can even stand," he reasoned.

Reluctant to continue the argument, I laid my head back in defeat, looking up at the raining sky. "Fine, I'll take it easier," I said. "But can we get out of the city at least? I hate rain. It ruins my hair," I explained as I flicked a wet strand of hair from my face.

"Very well," Freya agreed. "But there's one thing you've got to do for me to feel assured."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

XXXXXXXX

"You know, you didn't have to make this seem so dramatic," I protested as we crossed the plains outside of Burmecia. "It's kind of a comedy relief moment really."

The situation wasn't that bad really, but Freya had insisted on my getting some rest while riding Choco. Our chocobo companion didn't mind and I wasn't about to complain about not having to walk, but I knew Vivi was going to get tired before too long. I kind of felt guilty about taking Choco, since it was the easiest way for him to travel, not to mention the fact that Vivi liked riding Choco.

"After an injury like that, you should be thankful that you're not dead," Freya said. "Just stay still and get some rest."

By now, I knew how persistent Freya could be, so I didn't bother arguing. I leaned against Choco's neck and let my body just sink down. I was tired from all the fighting we had been doing, but I wasn't so tired that I couldn't walk. However, if I tried to fight it, Freya would just get mad and would start yelling at me again, which I didn't need. I decided to take it easy and get what little rest I could.

As our group walked, a small breeze came at me. It was only strong enough to brush my hair back, but I could feel it run along my chest from the hole in my shirt. It made me shiver and move my arm to cover myself. I was going to have to get a new one in Cleyra, not to mention new armor. The stuff Wayne had made for me was good, but Cleyra should have better. I'd enjoy seeing Dante's face again when he saw me wearing a brand new piece of mythic armor.

As I thought about my engineering friend, Zidane slowed his gait and started walking by my side.

"How're you feeling?" he asked. I turned my head to look at him.

"I'm fine," I said. It was true as long as you didn't count the Terran stuck in my head.

Zidane laughed with a smile of relief as I said this. "Good," he said. "When I woke up the first thing I saw was you with a hole torn through you. I was worried you weren't going to make it."

"Oh, me? I'm way too awesome to die that easily." I joked. "I'd need to lose most of my torso before I died."

"You _were_ missing most of your torso."

"…Oh."

Zidane just laughed. I rolled my eyes and started laughing as well. Maybe it was just because I was relieved to be alive and with my friends, but I didn't see anything wrong with the situation as it was.

"Well, you should get some rest," Zidane said. "It's still a long way until we reach Cleyra."

"Right, right," I muttered. I watched as Zidane picked up the pace a little and walked up to Freya. I heard him beginning to talk about how to help the Burmecians in Cleyra get to Lindblum before I started thinking to myself. I just wanted someone to believe that I was okay. If it wasn't for that coughing up blood thing, I'd be walking like everyone else. I was stronger than this.

My thought began to race as I remembered the events that led up to this point. Running through Burmecia, fighting Beatrix for the first time, seeing Kaiten fight Beatrix through my own eyes as he possessed me. The whole thing seemed to blur together. And as if that wasn't enough already, I also had little to no skill in combat against humans, a war to fight against a very powerful nation, a psychotic bastard living in my head, this really disturbing reoccurring dream-

_The dream!_

The image of the burning house in the field of blood flashed by my mind once again. I sat up on Choco so suddenly that I nearly fell off. After a quick second, I righted myself up and inwardly addressed a question to Kaiten.

_Kaiten, have you made any progress on finding anything about that dream of mine?_ I asked. There was a gruff replay as Kaiten's voice resounded in my head.

"_And why the hell should I do that?_" he asked.

Kaiten's curt response threw me back a bit, but I replied by pointing out: _You said you would. I thought we agreed to help each other out until we found you a new body!_

"_I'll keep you alive, that much is true, but only because I'll die if you die. I'm not getting enough out of this 'partnership'_."

_Not getting enough? _I asked, perplexed. _But I have nearly complete knowledge of the game and I know a few things about sword fighting. That's like really credible Intel for you, isn't it? On top of that, I'm willing to help you get revenge on that…Hart guy, was it?_

"_Hart Innural_," Kaiten corrected. "_And don't assume we're friends just because we're stuck together. As soon as I'm gone, you can roll over dead for all I care_."

_Hey, you don't have to be an asshole about it!_

"_You've just been thinking about yourself! Asking me to spend my time for something for you! Try being a little less selfish before you start criticizing others!_"

_Selfish! What have I done that's selfish? I've allowed you to stay in my head, look at some of my memories to occupy yourself, and I haven't even complained when you took over my body and used it to fight! And all I ask is that you help me understand something that I don't! You're the one being selfish by refusing to help anyone else!_

"_Refusing to help?_" he blurted out suddenly. "_Do you even know how you survived that attack from Kuja?_"

I recalled the image of myself lying back with my lung gone. Surviving that was certainly unusual, but still, this was a video game world. Maybe things were different here.

"_Once I fell, it took all my concentration to keep us alive and you out of pain. You didn't feel any during that time, did you?_"

I thought back and realized that I didn't feel nearly as much pain as I should have. There was some pain, yes, but compared to what it should have been, it was only a mild discomfort. I didn't know what Kaiten was getting at though. What did he do to reduce the pain?

_So you're saying you gave me a painkiller or something?_ I asked.

"_No_." Kaiten said at first. "_Since there are two souls in this body who can switch places in consciousness, we can transfer certain abilities back and forth. I give you my Chi attacks, you give me your memories, and so on. Not only that, but the physiology allows us to switch control and feeling of different parts of this body back and forth_."

My eyes widened as I realized what Kaiten was talking about. If my suspicions were right, then I owed Kaiten for more than just saving my life.

_So… you took control of that part of my chest and absorbed most of the pain yourself?_

Kaiten was silent for a short moment before he talked back. "_Do you have any idea how much it hurts to feel your lung explode inside your chest, but live to talk about it?_"

I didn't reply right away. The anger I felt at the arrogant voice in my head before was diminishing, but it was still there, if only a little bit.

_Fine, I'm sorry_, I said with an agitated sigh. _Let's just go along with the storyline until we get you out of my head._

"_Fine_," Kaiten replied. "_And I did find something out_."

_What?_ I asked, unsure what he was talking about.

"_About the dream moron. Try to keep up_."

_But I thought you said-_

"_I never said I didn't do it. Now are you going to listen or not?_"

I didn't say anything back. I just sat still and let him talk. Kaiten took the silence in stride and began explaining his findings.

"_So far, I haven't been able to find anything from before you were five_," he said. "_My guess is that something happened to you before then and caused you to block your memories. I've seen the same thing happen to soldiers after experiencing trauma_."

_I don't have any memories from before then? _I asked. _That's crap! I remember plenty of things from before then._

Hearing Kaiten tell me this unconsciously prompted me to recall some of the things from my early childhood, like playing with my friends or going to the park. In a way, it felt like I had to prove it to myself. The explanation, although disturbing, seemed plausible.

"_Those weren't memories. Those things were from your imagination. Thoughts pieced together from stories people told you_."

Hearing this was enough to send me over the edge. I was so stunned by it that I lost my balance and fell off of Choco. I landed with a hard smack as I hit the dried dirt beneath me. Everyone turned to see me picking myself up and slapping the sides of my pants to get rid of the dust.

"You okay Trevor?" Zidane asked as he approached me.

"Yeah," I told him. I was still a little shaky from Kaiten's report, but I could stand well enough. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look like it," Freya spoke up. "You're awfully pale."

"Really, I'm fine," I said. I'm just a little tired from riding Choco here."

The large yellow bird let out a curious 'Kweh' as he heard his name. He cocked his head to the side, clearly wondering what we were talking about. I just patted him and turned back to Freya.

"I'll be fine. I just need to walk around and stretch my legs."

"I think you should keep resting," Freya argued. "I've seen too many people die because of over-confidence."

"Oh, he'll be fine Freya," Zidane said. "He just needed a short rest. Plus, Vivi's getting tired," he said, pointing at the little mage, who had taken to sitting down rather than stand like the rest of us.

"I'm okay," Vivi said. "I just need a minute."

"We need to keep moving," Zidane pointed out. "And the best way to do that is if Vivi rests on Choco and Trevor walks with us."

Vivi, Choco and I looked at Freya pleadingly, curiously and sternly respectively. She just rolled her eyes and turned away, tossing her hands in the air.

"Fine, do what you want," she muttered in defeat. "As long as we get to Cleyra, I don't care what happens."

With her back turned to us, Zidane, Vivi and I looked about ready to break into celebration. Vivi smiled at being able to ride Choco again and I gave Zidane a pat to the shoulder in gratitude.

"Thanks man," I said.

"No problem," Zidane said back. "Freya can just get a little bossy sometimes. You just need to know how to deal with her."

A second later, Zidane flinched as a small pebble flew into the side of his head.

"I can hear you," Freya reminded us, juggling another pebble in one hand.

"Heh, sorry," Zidane said, scratching the back of his head. I just smiled nervously and didn't ay anything, lest I incur Freya's anger like Zidane did.

XXXXXXXX

It was dark a few hours later.

We had settled down for the evening and were making camp as the roar of thunder resounded overhead. I winced, my hair still slightly damp from our trip through Burmecia.

"Great," I muttered. "As if we didn't get enough rain before."

"It's just a heat storm," Freya said. "Only thunder and lightning. No rain to worry about."

After a long day of marching, we had made pretty good progress. The giant tornado of sand surrounding Cleyra was faint, but visible in the distance. With another day's hard march, we could make it there before sunset.

Zidane was busy trying to get a fire going so we could get dinner started, which wasn't easy considering the lack of trees anywhere near us, and Vivi had fallen asleep while riding Choco. The two of them were napping on the far side of camp from the tent. Freya and I were setting up the tent as a crash of thunder came overhead. I gazed upwards to see a bolt of lightning soar from the air into a small forest across the plain.

"The wind pushes the dry desert clouds here into the plains," Freya explained. "The clouds then mix with the moisture Burmecia is known for and it fuels the friction. That's what causes the thunder and lightning."

"Huh, interesting," I said, only paying half attention. I loved science, but I hated learning it.

Freya and I had had a strained relationship ever since we met. I left only a few minutes after meeting her in Lindblum and she had been in a panic ever since we learned of the siege on Burmecia, which made it harder to get to know her. She was always leading us around as fast as we could go. Now that things had settled down, she was much nicer and easier to talk to.

"Freya, you mind if I say something?" I asked out of nowhere.

Freya finished driving a spike into the ground for the tent and looked back at me. "Sure. What is it?"

"I wanted to apologize for making you worry in Burmecia," I said. Freya's expression of surprise didn't shock me in the least. "I know you were just looking out for me and that you've probably lost friends to combat in similar ways, so for that, I'm sorry. I should've been thinking more."

Freya didn't say anything for a moment. She just stared blankly at me until she put a hand to her mouth and began chuckling softly.

"What?" I asked, confused. "Did I say something stupid?"

Freya calmed down before answering. "No, but I appreciate the thought." She tied the last rope of the tent down to the post she had just driven, finishing the project. "I've never actually lost a friend to combat, or combat related injuries, but I've had plenty of friends who were injured and just brushed it off, only to get hurt worse later on.

"I had a comrade named Seki once. It was because of her that I was able to make it through military training. We leaned on each other for support and sparred with each other daily. The only reason I became such a good Dragon Knight was because she was with me.

"One day, we went into battle to fight off a group of Bandersnatches that were attacking merchants outside of Burmecia. There were more Dragon Knights than monsters, but we still had our share of casualties. Seki was one of them."

I stood quietly as Freya paused in the middle of her tale. I could only imagine how bad it must have been fighting a whole horde of Bandersnatches. Those giant, pink, flat-faced dogs creeped me out. Seeing them in real life was going to be vastly worse than seeing them in the video game. She drew a long breath in before continuing.

"One of the Bandersnatches managed to break through our defenses at one point in the battle. It made a charge for Seki and got a hold of her leg before I had a chance to stop it. It bit down on her leg and cut through to the bone. I was able to kill it when it left itself open soon after that, but the damage was done. Seki's leg was severely damaged and she kept yelling out for my help.

"The monsters didn't last too long after that. It was a good thing too. If I didn't give Seki a hi-potion when I did, she might have died from blood loss. The wound closed up enough to stop her from bleeding, but not enough for her to walk on. She insisted that she was alright and that the pain wasn't that bad. I tried to get her to slow down and to take her time, but she wanted to get home as soon as possible. She only made it back halfway to the city before she collapsed.

"Her wound hadn't completely healed, so walking actually worsened it. By the time we got back to Burmecia, the wound had become so serious that it almost had to be amputated."

"Was she alright?" I had to ask.

"She was off-duty for a month before she was allowed back," Freya explained. "She nearly died, yet she just tried to brush it off like it was nothing. I got so angry at her that I didn't speak to her for a long time."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

Freya sat down on the other side of the tent before answering. She seemed slightly more fragile than she usually did. I took it as a sign of trust that she would show me this part of her personality, rather than her constant military-style attitude.

"I left the city soon after to search for my love, a proud Dragon Knight known as Sir Fratley. I haven't seen Seki ever since then."

"Oh…" I said. I didn't expect her story to have such a sad ending. It made sense that she would associate reckless behavior with seeing a friend getting hurt. I was going to have to be more careful in the future.

"But… such is life," Freya said passively. "Friends grow apart and move on. She probably died defending Burmecia."

Although it was a sad thought, I turned and saw that Freya was wearing a sad smile, looking up into the thundering clouds calmly. Somehow, she seemed…happy.

I smiled myself and tried to help Freya however I could. "Well, if she did die, I bet she took out no less than twenty of the Black Mages!"

Freya smirked at me and corrected me. "Try a hundred."

Our smiles both grew until they changed into chuckles, then soft laughter.

I didn't know if Seki really was dead or if she managed to make her way to Lindblum, but Freya seemed content with the memories she had of her.

And that was good enough for now.

XXXXXXXX

Well, I got this done over Spring Break, rather than go to Cancun or Florida like every other college student in the country, so you guys owe me! Leave a review on your way out.

:)

Just kidding. ;)

In other last minute news, I've decided to take advantage of Final Fantasy IX's ATE (Active Time Event) system. Since the party starts dividing in several situations from here on out, I'll be making bonus scenes and adding them to my livejournal page. They won't add anything to the story and they'll be pretty short, but I'm hoping that they'll be amusing little skits. This week's skit is: Zidane, the Chocobo and the Fire. Enjoy!


	3. To the Sandy Tree House

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Well, 45 pages of obscure paper assignments and an anime convention later, I've finally come out with the next chapter of Anger. I tell ya, going as Sephiroth to a convention and doing a good job at it can be very dangerous for a guy. The fangirls nearly tore me apart. Lucky me, huh? Hehe. Not only did I cosplay Sephiroth, but I had a fun time cosplaying as Trevor. Yeah, I had a pair of short swords and a dark blue t-shirt that said "You're just jealous because the little voices are talking to me". Perfect outfit, huh?

Well, in terms of what's going on with the chapter, I think this is one of my better ones. There's more characterization than normal, mainly because I'm just getting better at it. We get to see a little more of Trevor's past, as well as what happens on the group's trek up the trunk to Cleyra. Enjoy.

Chapter 3- To the Sandy Tree House.

XXXXXXXX

It was early morning when I finally woke up. I blinked twice as the word came to me like a dark tan sheet. I blinked a few times, rubbing my eyes to help clear my eyes of the early morning lack of focus that I so often seem to go through. A brief moment to recount my memories and I remembered that I was in a tent just outside of the desert of Cleyra. That explained the tan sheet over my head.

I picked myself up and looked around the small enclosure. Freya was passed out in the sleeping bag next to mine and Vivi was napping farther into the tent. I looked to the east and saw only a sliver of light coming up. Too early in my opinion. I just laid back and closed my eyes again.

It seemed like my mornings were always like this. I'd wake up too early and just lounge around until my alarm clock would go off and my roommate would throw something at my head in revenge. I decided not to break tradition and just let my mind wander as it always did. Consequently, the first thing that came to mind was everyone back home. I could only guess at how they were reacting to my disappearance.

My father would obviously be worried as hell. My friends would probably be concerned, but knowing them, they'd just be living life normally. They could be assholes at times, but I persisted in hanging out with them for some odd reason. It seemed better than isolation at least. Sensei would…

My thoughts stopped wandering for a moment once I remembered Sensei. He was harsher than any of my friends and demanded more professionalism and skill than any of my professors, but damn if he wasn't the most fun to be around. He always seemed to challenge me in new ways and always gave me the right criticism. Sword club taught me about the basics of fighting with broadswords, but Sensei taught me ten times more than that. As fun as Sword Club was, I went to the dojo as well for the more intense training.

It was because of Sensei that my swordsmanship was as good as it was.

_My sword had been knocked to the side for the 3__rd__ time that night. A swift kick to the chest knocked me to the ground. I only had enough time to look up before seeing the tip of the practice bamboo blade (shinai) being pressed against my throat._

"_You're dead," Sensei said calmly._

_I groaned in defeat and pushed myself to the side once Sensei moved the shinai away. I took a deep breath before feeling the real impact of that kick in my chest._

_Sensei was a middle-aged man with a scraggly beard and a massive build. He spent a good portion of his day training his body in one way or another, making him extremely dangerous in a fight. The fact that he was a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do made it even worse. The longest I had ever lasted in a spar against him was only twelve seconds. He was good. And very dangerous._

"_Geez, did you have to kick me so hard?" I complained. I got a good whack to the head with a shinai for that._

"_Respect," Sensei said, quoting one of the dojo's rules of conduct._

"_Yes sir," I apologized. I sat up and managed to make my way over to my shinai. I was able to suppress the pain in my gut with a breath and some of the discipline Sensei had been teaching me._

_Sensei seemed harsh at times, be I knew he meant well. In the short time I had been training with him, I had gone farther in swordsmanship than I had ever gone in Sword Club._

"_Why did the sword get knocked out of your hand so easily?" Sensei asked. I stood up respectfully, as was proper when addressing him._

"_I wasn't fast enough, and my grip wasn't tight enough," I answered._

"_Good," he replied. "Shorten your grip on the hilt. Leave some room for the pommel to move."_

"_Yes sir,"_

_I adjusted my grip and held my hands with only two inches of distance between them. I took in one more deep breath to clear my mind of the previous failure and to ready for the next bout. I held my shinai out, pointing the tip at Sensei's throat. He did the same to me with his shinai, letting out a "Hiy-uup", asking if I was ready. I responded by saying "Hai", letting him know I was ready._

_Sensei made the first move by pulling back and holding his weapon parallel to himself. I held my sword in place, waiting for him to make the first move. I didn't have to wait long as he quickly made the first swing at my head. I brought my shinai up and blocked the first blow. The bamboo resounded with a loud crash next to my ear. As soon as the first attack failed, the next attack came from behind Sensei and aimed itself at my head. I managed to block this attack too. Next, Sensei swung his entire body around, brining the next attack down at my legs. I drove my shinai into the ground, halting the attack and stopping any more attacks for a quick moment. I took the chance and pressed onto the blade with my left hand on the pommel, while stepping in and giving Sensei an effective body slam to the gut. I let go of the blade with my right hand and twisted myself around with a reverse grip on the blade and brought it to Sensei's chest._

_However, like last time, I wasn't fast enough. Sensei blocked my attack and brought his leg up, landing another kick to my stomach. Considering how much bigger than me Sensei was, the distance I flew was understandable. I landed on my back and saw Sensei swing his shinai straight down at me, stopping only a few inches away from my face._

"_I think that's good enough for tonight," he said. I looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that we had gone over our normal time again. I looked back and saw Sensei offering a hand to help me up. I took it and was brought to my feet in one quick motion._

_I picked my shinai up and held it by the hilt in my left hand. This stance represented a sheathed sword and was the respectful thing to do when addressing one's sensei at the end of practice._

"_Chery-uup," Sensei called out. I did as directed and stood at attention. I brought my hand against my chest and held it vertically, as the salute was supposed to be. "Kuneen," came the second command. I bowed respectfully, keeping an eye on Sensei. He occasionally tried to bat my head with the pommel of his shinai if I didn't pay attention, so I had to stay alert. I didn't enjoy getting hit in the head._

"_You're form's improving," Sensei said as we rose again. I tried to hide a proud smile as he praised me. "But you need to work on your coordination and speed. Do forty fingertip pushups every day from now on, ok?"_

"_Yes sir," I said, maintaining the same level of respect._

"_Get your things together and we'll leave," Sensei said suddenly. "I'll give you a ride back to your dorm."_

"_Cool, thanks," I said with a grin._

"_Keep this level of determination up and I think we can work on duel wielding next week."_

"_Alright!" I said enthusiastically with a laugh. When I started learning here, I had mentioned that my favorite form of sword fighting was duel wielding. Sensei offered to train me in it when he thought I did a good job sparring and doing my sword forms._

_I didn't bother hiding my satisfied smile as we left the dojo._

I blinked a few times as the memory faded. I took a breath in, letting the emotions I felt watching it again pass. I glanced at the side of the tent again. The sunlight hadn't changed from its original sliver, but I didn't think it much good to keep laying around in here. Zidane was probably bored as hell outside, keeping guard.

I carefully made my way out of the tent, making sure not to wake Freya or Vivi. I lifted the flap at the end of the tent and made my way into the morning air.

The first thing I wondered about when I got out was how bloody cold it was. The second thing was about why Zidane appeared to be falling asleep. His head was resting on his knees as he hugged them to his chest. This was the guy on guard who was supposed to be watching out for the rest of us. My eye twitched in irritation for a moment before an idea came to mind. Zidane would probably be really high strung being outside and half asleep, if not totally asleep, so I could probably just tip him right over before he could react. It'd be worthy of a good laugh at any rate.

I carefully snuck up behind him…

"Morning Trevor," he said, barely turning to see me.

I stopped mid-step, eye wide. "Um…hey Zidane." I pulled myself back into a normal pose as passively as I could and sat down next to him. "How was your shift?"

"Tiring," he drew out.

"More so than usual?"

"I had to worry about him waking up and attacking me," Zidane said, pointing to Choco. The large bird was asleep on the other side of the fireplace.

"Heheh…oh yeah," I said, recalling last night. "Well it's not like he didn't have good reason."

"Hey, I didn't have anything to make a fire with!"

"Still, it must have scared him at first, so give him a break."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I suppressed another laugh as I leaned back and watched the sunrise over the mountain range to the east. An array of reds and oranges bloomed in the sky as the sun rose up. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen such a sight. I always woke up too early in high school to see a sunrise and too late in college. I hadn't gotten a chance like this in years.

"Hell of a sight, isn't it?" Zidane perked up suddenly. I nodded in agreement.

"You think Dagger's seeing this too?"

I turned around and looked at Zidane with a raised eyebrow. Even now, he still thought about Dagger. I couldn't blame him, considering that she was nowhere near and was doing something extremely dangerous. I just leaned my head back and tried to remember where she would be by this point.

_Let's see… After Zidane and the others fought Beatrix for the first time, Dagger was in Treno. She's probably still there._ Similarly to how Burmecia was the City of Eternal Rain, Treno was also known as the Dark City because of its lack of sunlight. I didn't understand how it stayed like that myself, but maybe the surrounding mountains had something to do with it. Still, I couldn't sound pessimistic about something like that. Zidane would be crushed.

"She's probably off watching it in a big open field somewhere," I answered confidently.

"Ya think so?"

"Yeah. With some handsome guy hugging her tightly."

I turned with a laugh only to see the most pitiful expression on Zidane's face. He looked like he was halfway to crying.

"Hey, relax dude. It was a joke."

"Don't joke about those kinds of things!"

"Will you two shut up?" came an irate voice from the tent. "It's too damn early for this."

Freya came walking out of the tent, donning her armor as she did. She pulled at her helmet once, adjusting it into place properly.

"Sorry Freya," Zidane and I said at the same time.

"Mmm…What time is it?" Vivi asked sleepily as he crawled out of the tent.

"About seven in the morning, I think," Zidane answered. "Although it feels earlier than that."

"We should get going then," Freya said. "If we leave now, we'll be at the foot of Cleyra's trunk by early afternoon."

As much as I would have preferred to just laze around for another hour or so, Freya had a point. Getting to Cleyra sooner would be best. Not only would we be able to set up a defense line sooner, but I'd be able to get a replacement for the ruined shirt I was wearing. The hole in it was making me cold.

"What about Choco?" Vivi asked. "Will he be able to come with us?"

My breath fell short as I realized the sudden revelation. Why hadn't I noticed it before? Because of the sandy environment and the climb up we were going to have to do, Choco wouldn't be able to follow with us. Even if he could avoid getting buried in the sand on the way up, there was still the matter of what would happen to Cleyra afterwards. I had no idea how he could really avoid getting killed from that. As tough as it was to admit it, Choco would have to stay behind.

"I think it would be best if Choco stayed here and waited for us to return," Freya said. Evidently, she had been thinking the same thing I was. "The ground inside the trunk is very sandy, so he would have a hard time keeping up."

"Oh…" Vivi said, disappointed.

"Hey, don't worry," Zidane said cheerfully. "He'll be waiting for us here when we get back. You'll see."

"Oh…ok…" Vivi said. It was obvious that he didn't like the situation. In the short time the two of them had been together, Vivi and Choco had developed a good, friendly relationship. Seeing them part was going to be heartbreakingly sad.

"Kweeh?" came Choco from the other side of the fireplace. His head rose up, looking at the rest of us curiously.

"Morning Choco," I said, trying to keep a calm air among the party. "Sleep well?"

The large bird didn't answer my question of course. Instead, he tilted his head back and started preening his feathers.

"I think we should get ready go leave," Freya said. "Zidane, Vivi and I will pack up the tent. Trevor, since you're the one who found Choco, do you think you could find a way to get him back to where he was?"

I nodded as I answered. "I think I could, but why not have Zidane try?"

"What? No!" the thief protested.

"C'mon! It could be funny."

"Trevor!" Freya shouted.

"Alright, fine. I'll do it."

I stood up, brushing some dust off of my pants, and walked over to Choco. The chocobo stopped preening and looked up at me with the same curious expression that he had woken up with.

"C'mon Choco," I said. "There's something I need to say."

"Choco seemed to understand and rose to his feet as well. I lead the way away from the campsite and came to a stop. Choco was right behind me and looked at me with his big eyes.

"Choco," I began. "The rest of this is going to get really dangerous. It'd be safer for you if you went back to Mene in Chocobo's Forest."

Choco just looked at me like he didn't understand what I was saying.

"Go back to Mene Choco," I said again. "You can't come with us anymore. It's too dangerous."

This, Choco seemed to understand. His head drooped down as he let out a sad "Kweeeh…"

"Yeah, I know. I don't like it either, but the rest of us are going to have to go into really heavy fighting soon. None of us want you to get hurt, so it'd be safer if you went back home. Understand?"

Choco gave me a very sad look before turning around and trotting away. I hated myself for making him leave like this, but he was far safer this way. As he eventually became smaller in distance, I turned around and headed back to the campsite. By the time I finally got back, the others were finishing up with packing.

"Well, he's gone," I said solemnly.

"It had to be done," Freya said. "He's clearly not a fighting bird."

"I'll miss him," Vivi said sadly.

"Hey, it'll be fine," Zidane said. "Besides, now he can go back to his friends back home. Right Trevor?" Zidane asked, giving me a quick look that demanded that I agree with him.

"Aye," I said. "And all the fruit he can eat."

"See Vivi?" Zidane asked. "He's fine. And it's not like you can never see him again. You know where his forest is, right Trevor?"

"Yup," I said. "Once we're done here, we can go back and visit him."

"Okay," Vivi said. He had cheered up significantly and had the same shine in his eye that he usually did.

"We need to get moving ourselves," Freya pointed out. "The more time we waste, the more time Alexandria has to mobilize."

"You're right," Zidane agreed. "We're leaving."

I picked up a backpack carrying some supplies and hoisted it onto my back. Zidane picked up a pack carrying the tent. Freya attached her spear to her back and headed out in front of the rest of us. Vivi carried himself off with his new Lightning Staff as a walking stick. Cleyra was only a few hours away. Already, we could see the tornado surrounding it in a mass of sand. I didn't know what was going to be harder: getting to Cleyra, or getting through the tornado.

XXXXXXXX

The sun was far overhead as we wandered through the desert. The heat seemed to beat down on us harder than ever, not only from the sun but from the sand beneath us as well. I was already covered in a layer of sweat, and the others didn't look like they were doing much better. Vivi was barely keeping up and Freya looked more irritated than usual.

"You doing alright Vivi?" Zidane asked the little mage.

"I-I'm fine," he stuttered. He was breathing pretty hard. We hadn't taken a break since we entered the desert.

"Maybe we should slow down a little," Zidane suggested.

"We need to get to Cleyra," Freya said, a little harshly. "We're not slowing down."

"But Freya-" Vivi protested.

"No buts!" she snapped. "Queen Brahne's forces are better armed than us. They could already be in Cleyra for all we know."

"Freya, back off," Zidane said. "Vivi's just tired. That's no reason to yell at him."

"You know as well as I do that we can't slow down Zidane!"

"Hey, I-"

"OI!" I finally had to interrupt. Fighting was only going to kill more energy and make us angry at each other. Our chances of making it to Cleyra were bad enough. There was a simple solution to this if one looked at it from the right point of view. To solve everything, I only had to walk over to Vivi and kneel down. I grabbed his arms and hoisted him onto my back, allowing him to sit on top of the backpack I was wearing.

"I know it's not the same as Choco, but will this work Vivi?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said quietly. I felt him adjust himself more comfortably on the back of my neck and rest his head on mine.

"See?" I said to the others. "Problem solved. Let's keep moving."

Zidane only nodded once and Freya didn't respond. They both turned back around and continued towards the swirling tornado not too far from us.

"Comfy?" I asked Vivi without turning around.

"Not really," he said. "Your backpack's kinda lumpy."

"Heh, sorry. Just try to get what rest you can, ok?"

"Okay," he said. I felt him rest his head on the top of mine before he stopped moving. We must have looked like an interesting pair. I had to suppress a laugh at how odd the situation was.

"_It's amazing that you can be this patient_," came an unwanted voice all of a sudden. "_Only two years ago, you would've joined Freya in telling the other to shut the hell up_."

_God, not this again._

"You know it's true," Kaiten pointed out. "You were an amazing rageaholic."

_Stop talking about that shit. I don't want to hear it._

"_You can't run from those kinds of problems forever. You'll need to face them sometime_."

_I've done just fine ignoring that those things ever happened, thank you._

"_No, I don't think you're really over them. Just look at how easily angered you are by just hearing about them. Your teeth are clenched pretty tightly_."

I stopped focusing on the conversation with Kaiten and realized that he was right. Even unconsciously, my teeth were bared tight enough to bite through a bone. But still-

_That doesn't mean anything. It's just a reflex._

"_Ah, denial. The first stage if I'm not mistaken_."

_I'm fine the way I am. Nothing needs to change._

"_Then explain all the things you used to do_."

_What are you talking about?_

"_The apathy in school. The lack of respect to anyone. The fights with your father. What do you think I'm talking about?_"

_I'm not like that._

"_But you were! What about how poorly you did in school?_"

_I did fine!_

"_You were always half asleep and you didn't give two craps about what your teachers said_."

_Why are you doing this?_

"_Oh, and then there was your father_."

_What about him?_

"_You mean you couldn't see it? How ashamed he was of you?_"

_My father is not ashamed of me!_

"_You mean you thought he liked you being a destructive, raging teenager? He hated you for it!_"

_Shut up!_

"_Then there was the "video game" playing, which he thought only made you more violent, the sword practicing, which he thought was a waste of time-_"

_Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!_

"_You need to face these things if you're ever going to get better_."

_I'm fine the way I am!_

"_You're not and you know you're not!_"

_Go to hell!_

"_Trust me on this. One of my subordinates was like what you were. His name was Aitris and he had the same problems you do. He nearly destroyed himself before our final mission. The difference is, I think you can solve your problems before it's too late_."

_I've done fine so far!_

"_No, you really haven't_," Kaiten said with a new tone of severity. "_You've only managed to block everyone else out. No one knows the real you. The scared child who wants others to help him, but who doesn't want to ask for it_."

_Kaiten, I'm going to kill you if you keep this up!_

"_Yeah, that's right! Prove me right you little shit!_"

_KAITEN!_

"Trevor?" Vivi asked. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" I said, coming out of my thoughts in a flash.

"You're shivering."

I looked at my hand and saw that Vivi was right. My hand was shaking violently. I balled it into a fist tightly and pressed it against my chest, hiding it.

"Oh, it's just a cold sweat," I lied to the little mage. "It's helping me stay cool in all this bloody heat."

"Oh, okay."

"Hang on…" I said suddenly. I lifted my backpack so it was higher up on my back, instead of lurching down halfway like it had been. Vivi was lifted as well. I adjusted the straps on my backpack and kept it in place there.

"There. Is that more comfortable?"

I felt Vivi shift himself briefly before setting in again. "Yeah, a lot." He rested his head on his hands on top of my head. "Thanks Trevor," he said with childlike innocence.

"No problem buddy," I said.

As I walked, my eyes felt like they were glassing over. Kaiten's words were still echoing in my head.

_I'm not like that_, I repeated to myself as I repressed the urge to scream. _I'm not like that… I'm not like that…_

XXXXXXXX

It wasn't long until we had finally reached the base of the tree. I had been stuck with my thoughts as a result and had spent almost the entire time thinking to myself.

_Maybe it was a mistake trusting Kaiten. Who knows what he'll end up doing. He's just been pissing me off lately. He's wrong anyway. I'm not like that at all. I'm social, friendly. I've been helping out everyone as much as I could so far. Even if I haven't been that helpful, I was still putting the effort forth. That's what counts. He's wrong. He's damn wrong!_

"This is it," Freya announced loudly, breaking me from my trance-like state. "Cleyra."

I couldn't see much, what with the tornado surrounding us. The earth surrounding the area had been ground down into clay and there were a few small trees that had been carved down to thin layers of bark. It was almost like Cleyra had suddenly appeared and began eroding everything around it.

"So where's the entrance?" Zidane yelled over the heavy winds.

"Not far," came Freya's response. "It should just be down the path we're on."

I looked down at our feet to the slightly beaten path. By slightly beaten, it seemed more like it was a shade of brown lighter than the rest of the dirt around it. The path lead all the way towards the tree, presumably into the trunk. It wasn't very obvious unless one was looking hard for it. A good initial defense plan by Cleyra.

"Let's get going before the wind gets any worse," Zidane said. He began down the path first, covering his face with his arm. Freya and Vivi, who was still getting a piggyback ride on my back, were able to shift their hats to cover themselves, but I had to bring my arms up to guard myself. I made sure not to lose sight of Freya and Zidane as we walked though. I wanted to get out of this mess as soon as possible.

The deeper into the tornado we went, the worse things became. The sand on the outer part of the sandstorm was bad, but it got heavier as we went in. The furthest parts of the sandstorm had trees, although weak ones. Here, the ground had been so eroded away that it was all worn down to barely anything. I felt the same sand that did that grind against my skin, hitting me so hard that I thought my arms were going to get peeled off.

As the winds picked up, it became harder to hear anything. I saw Freya turn back to yell something to me, but all that came to me was the nonstop sound of wind blowing and sand getting tossed around. I just pressed forward, trying not to succumb to the sandstorm's gusts.

Suddenly, I felt Vivi's grip tighten on my neck. The winds were too much for him and he could barely hang on. With things as they were, I couldn't reach up and grab him, so I grabbed his foot, which was hanging down next to my neck. It turned out to be the best thing I could do because a second later, Vivi was blown off of my backpack and would have gone flying through the air were it not for me. Shocked as I was, I did everything I could to hang on. I tried to yell to him, to tell him to just calm down and hang on, but the winds were so intense that I could barely hear myself. I just turned away from the winds and used both hands to hang onto the mage as he fluttered in the torrential wind. Vivi looked back at me, flinging his loose arm around and trying desperately to regain control of something while holding his hat in the other arm.

As I walked, Zidane came up to me and grabbed Vivi's arms. The little mage seemed to be giving Zidane a death grip as he struggled to stay in place. I looked at Zidane and with a wordless nod, helped him get Vivi upright and better able to make his way through the tornado.

With a quickened pace, we were finally able to make it into the trunk. The entrance wasn't designed as a grand one, but then again, what would be the point? It was little more than just a hole punched out of the wood. With a last grunt of force, all four of us managed to make it into the tree, out of the grinding and deafening winds.

"Is everyone alright?" Zidane asked as soon as we were in. "Vivi, how are you doing?"

"Th-That was scary…" Vivi stuttered. He fell to the ground, apparently grateful to be back on ground he could actually keep his feet on.

"Are you going to be alright?" Zidane repeated.

"Ye-yes…I think so," Vivi answered.

"Everyone else?"

"A little shaken, but I'll be fine," Freya said with her usual dignity.

"Aw man. Do you know how long it'll take to get this sand out of my hair?" I said, with my usual lack of dignity. I scratched at my head, trying to get as many sand particles out as possible.

"I take it that means you're fine too," Zidane said blandly.

With the wind gone for the time being, I stood up and looked around. The inside of the place wasn't really that bad. It looked like the inside of one of the normal trees that I used to climb when I was growing up as a kid. Well, except for the whole "giant" thing. There was sand on the ground, as I had expected, as well as some signs of tree life. Smaller trees, like the ones we had seen outside, were sprouting around in here, only these ones were doing well. They still had all their bark, as well as some leaves. If it wasn't for the monsters that I knew were in here, this could be a pretty fun place to live.

"We were lucky that the winds were that slow," Freya said. "The Cleyrans must have sensed our approach and slowed them so we could pass through."

"You mean that wasn't the tornado's fastest?" I said, lost in thought at what it would feel like passing through at higher speeds. If we had gone through that, we would have all been blown away.

"We'd better get moving," Zidane said, taking charge again. "Who know what's living down here."

"You do know you're going to jinx us if you say something like that, right?" I said tiredly. That trek into the trunk had taken more out of me than I thought.

"If I remember correctly," Freya began. "The path up to the city winds in and out of the tree. We'll need to go through one segment, follow the path as it leads outside the trunk, then go back inside after climbing for a while."

"We have to go back out there?" Zidane practically shouted.

"Yes, but the winds closer to the trunk higher up are supposed to be gentle," Freya said. "Otherwise, Cleyra would get blown away by its own defenses."

"I'm still not looking forward to it."

While the others were busy discussing what to do next, I began looking around the area. The first wave of Alexandrian forces were supposed to come through the trunk, using the same route we were going to. Judging by the sand and surrounding features, I had to assume that they hadn't been here yet. The sand was smooth and undisturbed in the rest of the room, there weren't any broken branches, and the whole place just seemed serene. I couldn't help but give a sigh of relief.

"What's up Trevor?" Zidane asked. Apparently, I'm a very loud sigher.

"I don't think Alexandria's been here yet," I said. "If they were, this place would be a mess."

The mass of troops needed to take Cleyra would have had to remobilize in this room, which would require a lot of movement and would make a big mess. The lack of such a mess lead me to believe that, with the exception of our little party, the only ones in this tree were Burmecians, Cleyrans and possibly the occasional monster.

"Then that'll make this easier," Zidane said. "Now all we need to do is get through the tree and find the King at the top."

Freya had a wave of concern wash over her face briefly before she rose and started walking across the room. My guess was that she was worried about how many other Burmecians made it out of the city and made it here. She was able to cover it up well enough after a second, but I knew I wasn't the only one who knew how concerned she was. Despite the tough military exterior she tried to put on, she could be pretty fragile at times.

I stood up myself, brushing my hair back to get more of the sand out, and followed behind her, as did Zidane and Vivi.

"So…what kinds of things live here Freya?" Zidane asked as we started off.

"Insects mostly," she answered. "There are also large birds and sand monsters to worry about."

"What kind of large bird?" the thief inquired.

""_Big_ ones," Freya said at first. "Imagine a carnivorous one the size of small house."

"Geez, that big?"

"You guys do know you're going to going to make us run into a monster or two by talking about these things, right?" I asked.

Zidane looked at me quizzically. "Trevor, do you really think something's going to attack us just because of what we're talking about?"

"Hey, I'm a strong believer in the perversity of the universe and Murphy's Law." I explained.

"Murphy's Law?" Zidane asked. "Never heard of it."

My heart began racing as I realized that I had slipped up again. Talking about things from Earth would just jeopardize my position here on Gaia. But then I realized the opportunity that claiming to go to a prestigious university granted me. I could say something and if no one could refute me, they'd think it was real.

"It's a philosophical phenomenon I learned in one of my classes," I said. It was a lie of course, but by now I was bi-lingual in English and lies. "Basically, it states that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

"Huh. Interesting theory," Freya added.

"It's a little cynical for my tastes," Zidane said.

"Maybe, but it happens more often than you think," I said.

"Well, I prefer not to worry about something like that," Zidane said. "It's not in my nature."

Before I could back myself up, I felt a smooth stone beneath my foot. That didn't seem right since the floor should have had nothing but sand all around. I looked down and saw an ovular red rock with some off carvings on it. It almost looked like a gem.

"Something wrong Trevor?" Zidane asked. He stopped and Freya and Vivi soon stopped too. They all looked at the red stone with the same curiosity that I did. It was only another second before I realized what I had stepped on. I jumped back suddenly, separating myself from Zidane and the others.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Zidane asked. He started towards me, but didn't make it further than half a step before Freya grabbed her spear and stopped him from moving any further.

"Don't move," she said harshly. "It's the core of a sand golem."

The fact that it hadn't woken up from something like that amazed me. I didn't think that anything could sleep through that, but if this guy could, then all the better for us. I was still tired from running through the sandstorm and I didn't think the others would be faring any better.

"Maybe it's dead," Zidane said. It seemed to make sense. After all, it would have tried to kill us a hundred times over if I was playing the game back home.

"Let's not take that chance," Freya insisted. "Trevor, do you think you can make it over to us without stepping on this thing?"

I nodded once. "Yeah, I think so."

I backed away slowly, being careful not to disturb the sand too much. If this thing really was alive, then it would make for a really complicated battle. I could recall how much of a pain it was fighting these things in the game. Fighting it in real life was just going to feel next to impossible. I kept my back pressed against the nearest wall and crept along slowly.

Just when I thought I was home free, everything went wrong. I halted in place as the sand beneath me started shifting, pulling towards a single point: the now glowing red core of the sand golem.

"Trevor! Get over here!" Freya called. She didn't have to say it twice. As soon as the mound of sand started gathering underneath the red rock, I bolted back towards the others. We were stronger as a unified front anyway. Being separated made it easier for the golem to pluck us off one by one.

As I slid next to the others, the sand golem was almost finished forming itself. It had grown about twelve feet tall with long, powerful arms by its sides. A small head crowned the large torso, leaving the red core placed in the middle of its chest as the only identifying feature on its body. The rest of its body looked like someone had taken a wide ended dress and meticulously glued sand to it. Why anyone would do such a thing and why I thought of that, I'll never know.

"Get ready!" Zidane called out. The rituals we had all developed of withdrawing our weapons ensued. Zidane reconnected the Ogre in front of himself, Vivi held his Lightning Staff in front of himself, Freya pulled out her Mythril Spear and held it in a low defensive hold and I yanked out my short swords and twirled them once before holding them out defensively.

_That must look so cool when done all at once,_ I thought to myself.

"Here it comes!" Freya shouted.

Immediately, the sand golem pulled an arm back and swung at us with surprising speed. All four of us managed to dodge one way or the other as the punch missed us. Zidane and Vivi went to the golem's left and Freya and I fell to the right. The monster's attack pounded into the ground, sending sand everywhere. Through the cloud of sand, I could see the crater it left. The punch could have hit all of us if we didn't dodge in time.

"Go for the head!" Zidane yelled. "Take it down and we can get out of here!"

Freya reacted quickly to Zidane's call and leapt forward. She jumped passed the monster's defenses faster than it could react and managed to plunge her spear into its neck. She made a deep cut into its throat, sending sand every which way. In one fluid motion, Freya cut the sand golem's head off, sending the sand making it up to the ground below. Without the head, the golem collapsed, sinking into itself and forming a neat little pile. Freya landed behind it, gazing contently at the fine job she had done.

"Well, that was easy," Zidane said. "I hope every fight goes that smoothly."

Zidane unhooked the Ogre and split the weapon into two pieces. He was sheathing them as I spoke up.

"It isn't dead!" I said. I got several looks of confusion at first. I didn't have to explain anything however. As soon as the pile finished falling, the red core on top of the pile began glowing, letting out streams of green and red light, accompanied by a high-pitched whistle. After a few seconds, the sand started reforming into the shape of a golem again, head included.

"What the hell?" Zidane let out. "I thought we just killed this thing!"

"You have to destroy the core!" I explained. "It's like the thing's brain. Without it, it dies."

"Alright then! I've got this!" the quick thinking thief said. He snapped the Ogre back together and dashed towards the adversary.

"No don't! It-"

My cry of protest was cut short. Zidane reached the sand golem too quickly to turn back and swung into the glowing stone. His attack left a good scratch in the rock, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to do much else. As the sand golem recoiled from the attack, it launched into a powerful counterattack. It swung its entire body forward into a punch, landing right in Zidane's gut. He was knocked straight into the ground, where the golem held him as the sand began to smother him.

"Zidane!"

I didn't do a good job of thinking things out myself. I just ran ahead at the monster and thrust a short sword into its chest, just under its neck. It grunted at first, but I pushed through and swiped a portion of sand out of its neck. It didn't seem to do much good though, since the sand just replaced itself.

Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to fell the thing so easily on my own, I turned my attention to helping Zidane. The sands had covered most of him, leaving only part of his head exposed. I took both short swords in one hand and reached underneath the sand to grab Zidane's arm. The shifting sands made it almost impossible for me to pull him back out, but at least I wasn't going to let him sink any deeper.

"Just hang on Zidane!" I cried out. His mouth was almost buried, but he looked back at me calmly. We both knew he wasn't going to die.

As luck would have it, Freya pressed that point by launching herself forward, sending her spear deep into the sand golem's head. She thrust her blade upward, sending sand up into the air. The golem, now without a head, just collapsed into itself again.

"Pull him out now!" Freya shouted as the golem sank. She reached into the sand and grabbed Zidane's other arm. Without the sand shifting over him anymore, it was easier to pull him out this time. Zidane kicked his was out as Freya and I pulled his arms out. With one last grunt of effort, we were all able to get the thief out of the sand, leaving us at the foot of the sunken monster.

"What about him now?" Zidane asked, righting himself up.

"Just hit the core," I said. "It won't counter when it's collapsed like this."

"I can do it," Vivi said behind us. He was charging up a spell already. A blue light seemed to surround his staff as he closed his eyes in concentration. I backed up a few feet, knowing how powerful some of Vivi's attacks could be.

As we waited for Vivi's assault, the sand golem began to stir. The stone on its chest began to glow faintly.

_Hurry Vivi_, I thought as I held my short swords tightly.

The sand began to reform as the core let out streams of brightly colored light. I worried for Vivi, knowing what would happen if the thing countered him. The little mage would be crushed.

"Thundara!" Vivi cried out.

Suddenly, just as the golem was reforming its torso, a thick beam of lightning hit the sand golem dead center in the core. A second and third bolt slammed into the core, rupturing it. As the lightning fell to the ground, it reformed itself into spheres and surrounded the monster, giving it and the core one more shock before dissipating. The golem just collapsed again under the sheer force.

"Alright Vivi!" I called out. "Bloody nice!"

"Well done," Freya complimented. "Now let's leave before anything else shows up."

We all sheathed our weapons, relaxing a bit. I knew that, even though this was just the bottommost point in the trunk, we would probably have to deal with much worse than this as we progressed. Sand golems were bad, but once you got passed their immense strength, then they were easy to beat. I imagined the insects later on would be worse.

"Okay, so how much further do we have to climb?" Zidane asked.

"If we keep a good pace up, we should be out of this tree before nightfall hits," Freya said. It was already late in the day, so I figured that it wouldn't take us more than two hours to climb. Hopefully, monster fights wouldn't add too much more to that.

"My shoes are going to get completely filed with sand, aren't they?" I ended up asking. "As if my hair wasn't bad enough."

"You know, you might be a little too self-absorbed at times Trevor," Zidane said.

I was about to reply, but a loud whistling sound came over us. I blinked a few times in disbelief, worried that the sand golem had risen once again. I turned around and saw just that. The monster had reformed itself and was now wobbling towards us, swaying with each movement.

"Oh come on!" Zidane yelled. "What's it take to kill one of these things?"

"Dammit," I muttered. I quickly took out my short swords and held them at my sides. I was getting pissed off at this thing for going down but not staying down. I channeled some energy into my blades. The core would have been weakened by now, so a good enough blow would be enough to destroy it. I remembered a technique that Sensei taught me once about dual wielding that I'd have to use.

_As Sensei had promised, we did in fact begin some lessons on dual wielding. I had been waiting all week for this chance, so I stood at attention, listening to everything Sensei was saying about this new technique._

"_When you have two swords in hand," he explained. "You can use both in a centrifugal spin. Spin in one direction while keeping one blade out to the side and one blade up above you."_

_Sensei demonstrated this and pulled off a move I had never even considered before. His right hand lead one sword around in an arc leading up above his head. The sword in his left hand was kept in a much smaller arc, staying near his head. When he had completed one revolution, both swords were above his head and came down onto his target with surprising power and accuracy._

"_Use this and you can knock a man down in a single blow," Sensei described. "You got that Trevor?"_

"_Yes sir," I said, absorbing all the material he was giving me._

I remembered that move quite well. I practiced it on my own quite a few times before coming to Gaia. I calmed myself down and brought one sword out to my side while the other came close to my head. As the sand golem approached, I took one running step out, pivoting on my right foot. I began a spin to my left, swinging my right sword up and behind my head, where the left sword met it. As I finished the spin, I was only a step away from the monster, which was readying an attack for me as well. With one quick push, I slammed both swords into the golem's chest, landing a devastating blow to its core. The swords hit so hard that the core even cracked a little.

"Pulse!"

The energy I had stored in the blades was released as soon as I made contact, sending a circular beam of energy into the core. The sudden blast furthered the damage done to it earlier and cracked the stone clean in half. The core fell to the ground in two pieces while the sand collapsed into a big pile.

"Wow. Nice job Trevor," Zidane said. "You managed to finish that thing off in just one hit.

"Thanks," I said, taking a breath. I calmed down a bit, sheathing my swords and taking a breath. Battles were becoming easier to me. I guess I was just gaining experience quickly. My thoughts turned a little as I wondered what level I would have reached in the game. Probably twelve of thirteen. Compared to what I was now, my level at the end of the storyline was going to be amazing. I chuckled to myself just thinking about it.

"Don't get too excited," Freya said, disrupting the mood. "We still have a long way to go to reach the top. If you waste all your energy here, we'll never make it."

I let out a sigh. Freya was right though. I was probably just getting too excited. Sand golems were bad, but I was more worried about the flyers we'd have to face.

"We're wasting time," Freya called out. "Let's go."

We left the room, leaving the mound of sand that was once a sand golem. The sky outside was blurred by the sandstorm, but there was still a good amount of sunlight outside.

We were going to be fine.

XXXXXXXX

Well, this is interesting, isn't it? I was originally planning for this chapter to be much longer and end when Trevor and company made it to Cleyra at the top of the tree, but I decided that I had enough for a good sized chapter here and that you guys were probably hurting for an update. Hope you all enjoyed it. :)

Also, as one final note, I want to dedicate this chapter to my friend back home, Marcello, who died recently. We didn't hang out as much as we used to in high school, but it still hurts knowing a friend is dead. He always could kick my ass in basketball. I was hoping to challenge him again this summer to see if I could switch that around. I guess that won't be happening, huh?

The next chapter may take some time to get started.


	4. And So We Arrived

Disclaimer- I don't own the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's note: Okay, all kinds of random and crazy things happening in Krimson-land.

Okay, I have a job working behind the security lines in Reagan International now *evil grin*, I've begun working on a novel that I hope to submit for publication sometime within the next two years, and despite the job, it's still technically summer break, so I hope to get some relaxation done (considering how last semester ended, I bloody well need it). So, I hope you all have fun reading this.

Just understand that my novel is going to take a lot of time from me. I'm going to be updating less in the future, but I'll make sure to come back and complete Shattered Mind every once in a while. I can't let this story die now that I've taken it this far, van I?

Chapter 4- And So We Arrived.

XXXXXXXX

The Red Rose flew calmly through the sky on its way to Cleyra to finish what it began. The Burmecians didn't have the crystal that Queen Brahne was looking for, but the Cleyrans were certain to have it. The soldiers on board stirred restlessly, anxious to get back on the ground and fight for her majesty.

The soldiers, made up almost entirely of women, were preparing themselves in one way or another. Swords were sharpened, daggers were fixed at the hip, and morale was kept at a record high. The advantage given by the Black Mages gave the Alexandrian forces a power boost as well as an excellent fear factor weapon. Plus, they could be produced and easily replaced; something that couldn't be said of the soldiers themselves so easily.

General Beatrix herself was looking forward to battle. After her near defeat in Burmecia at the hand of that…punk, she had been aching to restore her lost honor. Sacking Cleyra and retrieving the crystal for the Queen was just the way to do it. She wandered from barrack to barrack on the massive ship in no particular order, readying her troops and keeping order.

However, as she walked, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret. Despite how well this battle was going to go, she couldn't help but feel a loss. Her victory would be a dominating one, but would it be complete? After all, she never got to finish off that fighter from Burmecia. He had such a bizarre fighting style, and magic that she had never seen before. Beating him in combat-for real this time- would bring her nothing but glory. If she could stand against him once more, she would be content.

Beatrix entered another door. She walked in, expecting to see her soldiers chatting—and open to discipline for being so sloppy—but found someone else.

"Oh, Captain Delores. Here you are," the General exclaimed at seeing the sole man in the room.

Captain William Delores was a fine dressed man. He wore the uniform of his country proudly. He was a very handsome man and was one of the top rated officers in the military. His black hair was slicked back, which added to his charming appearance. His white V-neck uniform was neatly pressed, which he wore well over his blue dress shirt. Captain Delores was renowned as one of the best military minds in Alexandrian's military history. He glance up from his place at his desk and addressed the general.

"Oh, yes, hello General," he said, standing quickly and offering a salute.

"At ease," Beatrix assured him. Delores nodded in understanding and sat back down, going over his notes and maps again.

"Have you found anything?" Beatrix asked. "I want this operation to go as smoothly as possible."

"Actually, yes," the Captain answered. "We'll need to amend a few things to our current battle plan though. With Cleyra's construction the way it is, they can build a highly effective bottleneck if they build a blockade right here." He pointed to a schematic showing the single pathway leading into town. We'll need to draw them out before we begin the main attack. We don't know how many soldiers they have, so fighting inside the town will be a risky scenario for our soldiers. The Cleyrans have the advantage while in town."

Beatrix was intrigued. It was obvious why she brought Delores.

"And do you have a way to counter this?" Beatrix asked. "Can we draw them out of the city?"

"There is a way, yes, but it's not certain," he answered. "We can bait them out by launching a few soldiers in and using a false retreat tactic. If we can draw even a handful of their soldiers out of the city, it'll weaken them considerably. We can send the Black Mages in to destroy the city from the inside then."

Beatrix put her hand to her chin in thought. It sounded like a good plan, which was to be expected. Delores was the one responsible for taking Burmecia so quickly. Because of his siege and encroach tactic, the city stood against Alexandria for less than a week.

"How will we ensure that they'll take the bait?" Beatrix asked. "If they don't take it, then your plan will fail."

"My plans never fail," Delores said with a cheeky grin. "We may need to risk a few soldiers, but our mission will succeed."

"What about an escape plan? Has that been altered?" Beatrix rightly questioned. Since the plan detailed the queen using an Eidolon to finish off the city-at her highness' insistence-, she wanted to outside the tree with every one of her surviving soldiers as possible.

"Even easier than the invasion itself!" came the delighted reply. "I trust you know that the Black Mages can use the warp pods to launch attacks and return from missions?"

"Of course."

"Well, I've found that our soldiers can accompany the Black Mages one at a time and can ride their way back to safety to the Red Rose. For this to work most assuredly however, we'll need to send in more Black Mages than soldiers." Even though they were a great asset in combat, both Beatrix and Delores hated using the Black Mages. There was something unnatural about them. It was all because of what that man, Kuja, had been doing, introducing this dark magic to her highness. If they weren't bad enough, the Eidolons were worse. They were ancient creatures that were summoned by the powerful or the greedy and could decimate anything in seconds. Delores shifted uncomfortably in his seat just thinking about them. "Have you heard about what her highness has done to her daughter?"

Beatrix already knew about the Queen's horrid deeds. Beatrix herself protested them, but to no avail. Garnet had been found while on the run and had been captured. She had attempted to break into the castle in order to speak with her mother about restoring peace, but there was intercepted by Zorn and Thorn, the jester twins.

Steiner, who was still traveling with her was arrested for acts against the throne and was thrown in prison, along with an accomplice the two of them had picked up. Alexandria later identified this man as Marcus, one of the performers who had worked with Zidane the night that Garnet escaped the castle. He performed the main role in the play and did a remarkable job of distracting the audience from what was really going on. There was little doubt that the two of them would be sentenced to death upon the Queen's return to Alexandria.

"Yes, I have," Beatrix answered. "The Queen seems to have extracted Eidolons from the princess."

"Yes," Delores confirmed. "It's bad enough to use the poor girl like this, but I don't think anything good will come from trying to utilize such abnormal power. Perhaps these creatures were sealed in the princess for a reason."

"I don't know," Beatrix answered. "All I know is that it's my job to follow her highness' orders, and I will do so at the cost of my own life."

"Hmm… perhaps that's the best option for now," Delores said. He stood from his chair and stretched out his back. "Well, I could go for a walk right about now," he said. "Care to join me General?"

Beatrix nodded. It had been a long day. The Red Rose was set to arrive at Cleyra the next day and begin operations then. A small walk wouldn't make any difference. She would brief the soldiers the next morning.

Delores made his way over to the door with Beatrix right behind him. Delores opened the door and stood aside, allowing the superior officer through first.

"After you General," he said politely.

Beatrix merely walked through the doorway with little more than a nod of gratitude. Although she had a professional relationship with Delores, she considered him the closest thing to a friend over anyone else in the castle. He walked out after her and closed the door behind himself.

"A beautiful day for a stroll, even if we are several hundred feet in the air," Delores joked.

"You always try to find the lightest situations in everything you do, don't you William?"

"So I try," he replied.

The two of them made their way down the port side walkway. Even though the Red Rose was a luxury air ship being used for war, it was still a lovely ship. The view out into the plains stretched for miles in every direction. Even as dangerous as it was, the mist did little to detract from the experience. It simply made the ground look foggy.

As the general and the captain walked, several soldiers passed them by, walking to other rooms to prepare for their assault, or by conversing casually. Beatrix wasn't crazy about seeing her soldiers in such lax form, but she knew that several of them would die in tomorrow's frivolous operation. She felt obligated to give them one last day of solace before going off into battle.

A small platform came into view along the walkway. Delores headed for it and Beatrix thought nothing against joining him on it. The railing here scooped out into a half circle connected to the main deck, adding to its appeal.

"You know," Delores began suddenly and sadly. "My son would love to have been here."

Beatrix gave her friend a side-glance. More than a week ago, his son had gone missing. No one had seen any trace of him, leading the suspicion to kidnapping. The Alexandrian Guard searched the entire city for any sign of him, but to no avail. When it was finally time to leave to take Burmecia, Delores had been so haggard that he hardly resembled the same person. It had taken four guards to pull him away from his house in order to prepare for war.

"He would have made an excellent addition to our forces," Delores continued. "He often came to the same conclusions that I did in tactics. He truly understood the art of warfare."

"Yes, I'm sorry for your loss," Beatrix tried to comfort. Delores just brushed it off.

"Don't talk about him like he's dead," he insisted. "I'll find him somehow."

Beatrix sighed. She didn't know what it was like to go through what he was going through, but she tried to help him however she could. She put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "I know you will," she said. "And I'll be there to meet him when he does."

Delores gave a laugh. "Yes, I still can't believe that I've never introduced you to him."

"What's he like again?" Beatrix asked, making sure to ask 'what is' instead of 'what was'.

"Very tenacious, and has a very good spirit. He'd always go out of his way to help others, even if he didn't always like to."

"You talk as if he forced himself to be nice."

"Only sometimes. He said that it wasn't fair to others to have to put up with him when he was having a bad day, so he usually suppressed himself. He's certainly stubborn."

"Just like his father."

As Beatrix and Delores shared a laugh, a single soldier came running up to the two conversing officers. She saluted once and turned to General Beatrix.

"General, her highness the Queen says she needs to speak to you."

Beatrix nodded. "Tell her highness that I shall be there momentarily," she ordered. The soldier saluted once more and left.

"I supposed she'll want to hear those amended battle plans," Beatrix said to Delores. "I'll let her know you send your regards."

"Thank you Beatrix," Delores said simply. He leaned on the railing of the platform and gazed out over the land.

"Get some rest. You'll find your son eventually, but for now, I want you to lead the bait group for tomorrow's assault."

Delores turned with a hand on the railing and nodded in understanding. "Is that an order?"

"We both know I don't need to make it one." Delores was not a sloppy man. He would prepare himself for battle as the professional that he was. With the captain's nod, Beatrix knew she could count on him. She turned and left for her audience with the queen.

Delores turned back to gaze out at the pastures of green below the ship. Again, his thoughts turned to his son. He hadn't been seen since he had fallen off of the balcony on the night of that disastrous play. Delores sighed to himself as his thoughts consumed him.

"I will find you Trevor. I swear it."

XXXXXXXX

"Come on lads! Hurry up or the trolley bug'll get ya!" I said in a British accent.

We had been making our way up the tree slowly but surely. Things had been strenuous, but we were making good time. There weren't that many monsters and whatever monster we did run into, we were finishing them off quickly.

"What the hell is a trolley bug?" Zidane asked as we walked across more sand.

"Something that I think I made up."

"You think you made up? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I dunno. I think the heat's been melting my brain."

We had already crossed the only man-made bridge in the entire tree. I knew that that meant we weren't far off from the city. Just a few more chambers and we'd be done with this. And then we'd get to hang out in a doomed city that hates Vivi and gets destroyed by a magical flaming spear. What fun that would be.

I tried not to think about that for now though. All I wanted to do was take a shower, get all this sand out of my hair and sleep in a good fluffy bed. The thought had me so excited that I was running ahead of the others.

"Guys, keep up!" I shouted back form across the room. My guess was that they were still tired from the last fight and were aching all over.

"Where do you get all this energy?" Freya demanded.

I simply shrugged and walked backwards while I waited for them to catch up. "Not sure. It's probably adrenaline though. I mean, I did get that one bug right in the stomach."

"It was a nice shot," Zidane said, trying his hand at being cheery.

In the room before the bridge, we had fought a small swarm of Dragonflies. They weren't the small, peaceful looking kind that you could find at a lake, but rather were enormous and grey and hairy. They looked like someone took a praying mantis, cut off its tail about halfway down and enlarged the remaining bug by about ten times. Whoever did something like that would be the sickest man alive.

The fight was pretty rough. Because they could fly, we had a hard time hitting them as they swooped in and out of us. We eventually got them until there was only one left. Out of anger, I ended up throwing a short sword at it. It was reckless and stupid, but it managed to peg the giant bug right in the stomach, pinning it to a wall. I couldn't believe my luck at the time and was so excited that I was still feeling an adrenaline high from it. It was a one in a thousand kind of shot and I was still elated.

"So what rooms are we going to go through next?" Vivi asked. He was probably the most tired of us all, yet he still pushed forward. He could be really tough when he tried.

"I've heard of a sand pit room with several sinkholes in it, followed by a room holding a guardian to stop trespassers." Freya explained.

"Freya, how can you know these things?" Zidane asked. "I thought Burmecia and Cleyra cut ties with each other centuries ago."

"They did, but before that they were on friendly terms and traded information with each other. Burmecia still had a few records about Cleyra."

"Couldn't the Cleyrans have changed their plans over the years?" I asked.

"Not likely. They're very traditional and consider this tree very sacred. Any change to it or anything about it might be deemed as sacrilege."

"Well that's reassuring," Zidane said. "So we only need to survive two more traps and we're there?"

"Essentially, yes."

"Um, what was the guardian?" Vivi asked. "You said there was a guardian, right?"

Freya nodded. "Yes, but I don't know what it is. I never found any records on what it may be."

"We'll just have to go in and beat it then," Zidane said, very sure of himself.

"Always so full of confidence, aren't you?" I commented.

"It's how I live."

The next room didn't offer any change. Just another room filled with sand and carved out tree bark. The sand shifted in some places, falling down slopes and falling towards the center of the tree. I could see a small waterfall of sand falling from a hole in the wall into the middle of the trunk. It probably circulated after that into the rest of the tree. That at least explained how there was so much sand flowing this high up.

As we walked, the sound of shifting sand grew louder. It was a soft sound that grew louder until it sounded like someone was grinding a pair of enormous sheets of sandpaper together. We walked into the next room cautiously and found several whirlpools spread out throughout the room. They were mostly centered along the edge of the room, but there was only one clear path through the room.

"Well, this doesn't look too hard," Zidane said. "It'll be like walking on a balance beam."

"Easy for you to say," I commented. "You're practically an acrobat."

"No, I _am_ an acrobat," Zidane corrected with a cocky smirk.

"Wiseass."

"Um… How are we going to get through?" Vivi asked. He hid his hands in his coat and backed up away from the whirlpools a step.

"We'll walk down the calm sand," Zidane said. "Just take it nice and slow and you'll be fine."

"But the path's so small!"

It was true. We had only a good six inches to walk or risk falling beneath the sand. I knew I could do it, but Vivi had a tendency to waddle when he walked sometimes. That put him at greater risk.

"Do you think you could walk sideways Vivi?" I asked. "If you keep your feet on the path that way, then you should be able to stay on the path."

"I don't know," he said hesitantly. "I can try."

"I'll go first and see how it looks," Zidane said. "Trevor, do you think you can cross this alright?"

I ground my foot into the sand for a moment, testing its structure, before answering him.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have any trouble," I said.

"Ok, then can you go with Vivi and make sure he's alright?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Then I'll go last," Freya put in. "If anyone falls in, then I'll use my spear to pull you out."

"Good idea," Zidane said. He walked over to the edge of the sand pits and took a breath before heading out. He made his way casually, almost as if he was out for a walk in the street. After only a short while, he made it to the other side. He gave a jump and tapped his feet together when he got to the solid sand. I couldn't help the disapproving glare that came over my face.

"Bloody showoff."

"Alright, now Trevor and Vivi," Zidane called back.

"Ready to go?" I asked the little mage.

He shook slightly as he answered. "I think so."

"You'll be fine," I said. The two of us walked to the edge of the sand pits together. "Here we go."

I took the first steps out. I imagined a straight line running through the path and made sure to keep my feet as close to the center of it as I could. It was easy enough as long as I didn't focus on the shifting pits at my sides waiting to pull me under.

Vivi didn't seem to be having as simple a time as I was. He scuttled nervously and made quick, jerky movements. I kept one eye on him and the other on the ground below me.

"Okay Vivi, we're halfway there," I said.

"I don't know if I can do this."

"You're fine. Just a few feet to go."

No, I-"

As we neared the end, Vivi began to lose his balance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sway forward, holding his arms out reflexively. As soon as I realized what was going to happen in a few seconds, I lowered myself down and twisted in order to gently push Vivi back into place. I had a about a second of relief as Vivi righted himself up before I began to fall backwards myself.

"Crap!"

I quickly spread out my entire body along the ground. It stopped me from falling, but now my balance was skewed and I couldn't move, lest I fall into the sand pit right behind me.

"Well this is awkward," I said. Right now I was hanging with one legs resting over the pathway, my other leg beginning to sink into the side of the pit below me, and I was grabbing onto what parts of the solid path that I could. I imagined that I looked like some retarded crab.

"Don't move!" Zidane cried out. "I'll get you."

"No!" Freya called out. "Zidane, you stay there. I'll get him."

"Trevor, are you alright?" Vivi asked, still by my side.

"I'm fine," I told him. "Just get to Zidane."

Vivi didn't move. He just stood in place, shivering.

"What, am I too big to climb over?" I retorted. "Get out of here Vivi!"

"B-but-"

"If you're out of here, then I have one less thing to worry about."

Vivi seemed to understand the severity of the situation and nodded. He held onto my leg and crawled over it, landing safely on the other side of the path. I watched as he continued down towards Zidane. I didn't like having to yell at him, but I needed him to be safe, first and foremost. With him gone, I could worry about my own problems now.

"Grab my hand," I heard Freya's voice say. I looked up and saw her standing right above me, offering a hand for me to hold onto.

"Well, I would, but if I move anything, I think I'll fall," I explained. "Can't you grab my hand and pull me up?"

"I can try, but since your left hand is buried, I don't know well I can."

I paused for a moment, considering the options we had. Freya could reach in and grab my left hand, but she might not be able to pull it out because of the odd angle it was at under the sand. She could step behind me and pull me up that way, but with my feet positioned the way they were I might just lose my balance and fall down again. If Zidane could walk out and help we might be able to do it, but I didn't want to put him at any more risk.

"Trevor, you're going to have to sit up and grab my hand," Freya said. "It's the only way."

"Dammit, are you sure?" I asked.

"Other than getting Zidane out to help us, yes. And frankly, I don't want to put anyone else at unnecessary risk."

It seemed Freya and I were on the same wavelength. Neither of us were willing to risk someone else for ourselves.

"Alright, I'm going to try," I said. I shifted my weight right as much as I could so that I could pull my left hand out. After moving over as much as I felt comfortable, I took a breath and readied myself.

"Ready?" I asked Freya.

She nodded and held her hand out close to mine. I placed my weight back on my right hand and yanked back on the opposite shoulder. The sand gave way and my hand came free. Freya managed to grab it just before I fell again.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I will be when we get to town," I explained.

With Freya holding onto my hand, we were able to get me back to my feet. I struggled getting my legs back on the path though, but that was cleared up after a moment. Freya grabbed me by the shoulders and seemed to lift me up by her own. I made a note then and there not to get into a strength contest with her.

"Good job," Zidane called from the safer end of the room. "Now hurry up so we can get out of here."

Zidane's suggestion was the obvious one. Freya and I managed to make it to the other side without any more complications. Zidane was there to give us a hand and help us get through the small doorway into the next room.

"Well that was annoying," I commented. "Remind me never to go to the beach again."

"You're fine," Zidane said with a friendly swat on the back. "Now let's get going. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to."

I shook my head, trying to rouse myself for the short distance we still had to travel. There was only a little bit left until we got to town. With the money I still had, it would be enough to buy a few nights at the inn, as well as an enormous feast. Pancakes and fluffy loaves of bread as far as the eye could see. I could imagine it now…

"Trevor!"

I blinked a few times, snapping myself awake from my daydream and turned to Zidane. "What? Something happen?"

"You're drooling." Zidane answered.

"…"

I dragged my hand underneath my mouth and wiped away a trail of drool.

"What were you thinking about?" Zidane asked. "Girls?"

I turned to the thief and gave him an indignant look before swinging at the back of his shoulder. I followed up by calling him a jackass.

The next room opened up much wider than the last one. The wall was gone from the left side of the room, exposing us once again to the tornado outside. None of the sand from outside made its way in here, much to my relief. On the far side of the room was a simple ladder, which seemed to be made out of sticks and vines. Not the sturdiest ladder, but I didn't care as long as it held up.

"Alright! We made it!" Zidane said. Vivi and I gave a cheer while Freya let out a sigh of relief. Zidane jumped in front of the group excitedly and faced the rest of us. "C'mon guys, let's get up there."

"Wait," Freya said, stopping Zidane. "Something doesn't seem right."

"What?" Zidane asked. He stood only a few feet away from the ladder.

"There was supposed to be a guardian as well," she explained. "If we were going to fight one, it would be here."

Zidane raised an eyebrow. He looked around the room once before turning back.

"I don't see anything. Maybe there's nothing around."

"It could be like the sand golem from before," I offered. "Maybe it'll show up at random."

That seemed to hit Zidane somehow. He turned back to the ladder and brought a hand through his hair. He let out a breath for a moment before turning his head back to us.

"We're not getting anything done by just hanging around here," he said. "Let's keep going and if we run into this thing, then we fight it."

"Very well," Freya said. "Hopefully we'll get lucky and it won't show up."

"Alrighty leader man," I joked.

Zidane just rolled his eyes and walked up to the ladder. He tested it by grabbing a rung above his head and pulling down on it. After he failed to break it, he jumped up and put his legs on the bottom rungs as well.

"I guess that means it's safe," he said.

I began making my way to the ladder when a loud squawk rolled across the room. We all stopped and looked around the room. Wherever the sound had come from, I couldn't see it.

"Was that the guardian?" Vivi asked.

"Must've been," I said. "Where is it?"

"I can't see it," Freya said.

"Everyone group up!" Zidane said. He jumped down from the ladder and ran towards us. "Keep some distance between us, but don't stray too far."

The squawk came again. It echoed throughout the room, but gave no clue to its origin. All four of us stood ready for combat, keeping our eyes open at every inch of the area.

"Does anyone see anything?" Zidane asked. None of us did, but we never had the chance to respond. The next thing I knew a green light surrounded Zidane. It circled around him like a series of waves that blended into a cyclone, then quickly picked up speed and converged into a single point on the thief. Zidane had about half of a second total before the light exploded on his chest. The attack knocked Zidane three feet into the air and left him crumpled on the ground.

"Zidane!" Vivi cried out.

The squawk sounded once more as a shadow appeared on the other side of the tornado. It grew for a second before the largest bird I had ever seen burst through. It flapped its wings violently and hovered into the room above us.

I recognized the monster as a Zuu. It was probably the size of a truck. It was covered with midnight black feathers with a blood red crest on the top and sides of its head. Its beak was enormous. It looked like it was segmented and was about half the length of its wings. It wouldn't have any trouble eating something the size of a small cow.

I could only stare on in awe. "Well…crap…"

The Zuu let out one more deafening squawk before diving in.

"MOVE!" Freya yelled.

She didn't need to say it twice. I fell into a roll to the side as the giant bird raked its beak forward, ready to knock someone into submission. It swept back corrected its flight at the other end of the room, turning around to face us again.

Freya was the first one to attack it. As fast as the Zuu was, Freya was faster and more agile. She lunged at the monster and swung a powerful blow at its chest. The bird tried to get out of the way, but ended up taking a deep gash, letting its blood spill out onto the floor.

The Zuu screamed out in pain. It fluttered for a moment before flying to the other side of the room to get away from the dangerous Dragon Knight. Unfortunately for it, that's where Zidane and I both were.

"Zidane!" I called out. "Are you alright?"

He had taken a pretty bad blow, but Zidane managed to get to his feet again all the same. "Yeah," he said. "I'm alright."

The Zuu swept in and set its eyes on the two of us.

"Think you can fight it?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. I'll just need your help."

"You have an idea?"

"Yeah, but I'll need you to distract it."

Before I could respond, the Zuu charged in. Whatever Zidane's plan was, the explanation would have to wait. I kept both short swords in front of myself, ready to intercept whatever attack came my way.

Unfortunately, the attack that came wasn't a slam as I had thought. The Zuu opened its massive maw and barreled down on me. I remembered one of its most annoying abilities from the game was Swallow, which would get rid of one character from a fight. If that happened here, it would probably kill me.

When the monster was only feet away, my reflexes kicked in so fast that I didn't register ever moving. I held my swords pointed at my sides and held them firmly against my chest, getting ready for the impact. When it came, the bird knocked me back a few feet, trying to bite me in half. Lucky for me that it only bit down on the tips of my swords. As long as I didn't falter, I would be fine. I just had to wait until Zidane or the others backed me up.

It took all my strength to keep the monster in place. The thing was probably winded from Freya's attack and couldn't bite down with its full strength, much to my preference. I assumed this was good enough of a distraction for Zidane. I could only hope that he hurried up. The seconds felt like hours and I wasn't sure how long I could hold out.

_Hey Kaiten, I could use some help,_ I implored the voice in my head. I expected a crude reply, but I got only silence. _Kaiten!_ I tried again, only to be met with nothing again.

_Dammit Kaiten, I need your help! This thing could kill us!_

Whatever his reason, Kaiten wasn't answering me, and that most likely meant that help wasn't going to come from him.

_Dammit!_

The pressure form holding the Zuu at bay was beginning to build up on me. I could feel my grip slipping on my swords already. I didn't have long to take action, so I did what I could. I let my energy seep into my blades and gather their energy at the tip. Maybe it was how slowly things seemed to be going, but I couldn't wait for Zidane. I had to use Pulse on this thing and make it release me.

As the energy gathered, I subconsciously noticed something different. Maybe it was the intense pressure I was under, but the tips of my short swords were glowing differently than usual. Instead of the usual small shimmer I got when I used Pulse, I had a pair of blunt spheres growing. I could barely register what they were at first, but I remembered one of the attacks Kaiten had showed me in his fight against Beatrix. There was one ability that sent energy into the tip of the blade as a glowing sphere. Kaiten had called it Explosion.

I didn't know why I was able to use it now, but from what I could gather, it was a stronger attack than Pulse. I was going to need it if I was going to survive.

I let the energy hang there and collect upon itself. I didn't know how much I'd need to take down the Zuu, so I planned to use it at the last possible second.

I never got the chance to though. As I stood in my compromising position, Zidane had finally come from behind the monster and gave me the backup I so desperately needed. I heard the bird shriek out in pain and thrash its body around as I heard the Ogre gouge the Zuu. It was soon joined by Freya's spear form the other side. Now, the Zuu was taking damage from both sides. I nearly laughed when the Fire spell came in and blast it from above. It was like an all-party assault all at once. I knew it was my turn, so I tried to hold on for one last second.

It turned out to be one second to long though. In an attempt to get away, the Zuu reared its head back, and then rocked its head forward and to the side. It flung me so hard that all I could do was hang on until I fell out of its mouth. I rocketed towards the wall and ended up hitting Zidane along the way, and slamming into the wall with him.

As I laid on the ground sprawled out in pain, I saw Freya fiercely lunge at the Zuu again, but she missed. The bird flapped its wings and gained speed. It flew up at first out of Freya's first attack, then out of the room and into the tornado. It flapped its wings quickly and was overcome by a white light. The light passed over its wounds and soaked into them, healing them quickly.

"Dammit," I coughed as I tried to get up. "So now we're back to where we started?"

"Don't give up," Zidane said weakly. He picked himself up and walked ahead of me. "It still needs to come in to attack us. We'll get it then."

As if the Zuu heard Zidane and decided to mock him, it began to flap its wings. Suddenly, a green light filled the center of the room, just like the Aera spell it had used on Zidane before. The light swam around the room, gathering dust up into a smokescreen. When it was finished, the room was too cloudy to see.

"Dammit!" I let out. "Is this thing just messing with us?"

I quickly learned that it wasn't simply messing with us. Unlike every other monster we had fought until this point, this one could think. There was little wonder why this thing was the guardian here. If anyone other than Burmecian or Cleyran came here, they would get jumped and most likely killed.

Through the cloud, I could see the Zuu move. It flew in a circle once before turning and making a beeline for us.

"Everyone down!" I cried out, collapsing down as I spoke.

I could only hope that the other heard me and did as I said because a second later, the Zuu swept in, arcing around the room with enough speed to do some serious damage if it even grazed one of us.

The attack cleared the room, settling the dust or taking it outside the room. I quickly looked around and saw everyone laying flat on the ground like me. At least we were safe for the short moment. The Zuu flew back to its spot just inside the tornado.

We all got up and dusted ourselves off.

"How are we going to get at that thing?" Freya asked. "There's no way it'll let us pass."

"Can't you jump at it?" Zidane asked Freya. "I've seen you jump further before."

"No way," she answered. "If I miss, then I'm dead. Falling from hundreds of feet up doesn't suit me."

"It's up to Vivi then," I interrupted.

"M-me?" the little mage asked.

"You're the only one here who can hit it at this range Vivi," I said, finally recovering from that hit against the wall. I used the wall to steady myself, leaning against it slightly. "You've done more impressive things than this before," I reminded him. "Remember Gizamaluke? Or the Black Mages in Burmecia?"

Vivi didn't say anything. He just nodded and seemed to grow a more determined look in his eye. Vivi held his Lightning Staff tightly and gathered up the magic. The Zuu seemed to know what was going on and began flapping its wings for an attack. Another Aera spell came down in the center of the room. With Vivi only a few feet away and concentrating on his spell, there was little we could do to stop the monster. We could only hope Vivi finished charging first.

Suddenly, the first spell finished. The Aera spell hit the center of the room and coughed up more dust, clouding the room again. I readied myself and knelt down, waiting for the inevitable assault. However, at that very moment, Vivi finished his spell also. Even though he couldn't see, he seemed to know what to do. He aimed outside the room and let a Thundara spell loose.

Although I could only see the Zuu as a dark blot through the cloud, I knew that the spell had hit. The blot shivered as the lightning shocked it and it let out a painful sounding shriek. Three threads of lightning came down on the Zuu and rolled along its body until it reached its talons. There, the magic gathered into a series of spheres placed out around its body and gave it one more intense shock. The Zuu screamed out in pain again, but kept flying.

"Alright Vivi!" Zidane cheered.

"A fine shot," Freya said.

I could only chuckle. My sides hurt too much to do much else.

As the dust settled on its own, we could clearly see the ragged form of the Zuu, still airborne. It fluttered pathetically in the wind, just barely able to stay up.

"Alright Vivi, finish it off," Zidane said. Vivi nodded and began focusing for another spell.

The Zuu wasn't so foolish as to just let Vivi finish his spell however. As Vivi concentrated on his spell, it began flying in a circle. If it was going to repeat its behavior, then that meant that it was going to swoop in and would try to bash us around. Who knew what would happen to us if that happened.

Freya seemed to understand this problem as well and jumped in front of Vivi. "We need to stop that thing from getting any closer!" she proclaimed loudly. "You guys stay back; I'll use Dragon Fence. If that thing comes near us, my magic will blow it up."

I didn't know what Freya was talking about. I didn't know she had that kind of ability. It sounded like a proximity attack set over a wide area, but as far as I knew, no one here had that kind of ability. Still, I wasn't about to ask any questions about it. The Zuu heard her well enough and stopped its attack. It wasn't a stupid beast and apparently decided to hang back to see what happened.

Freya swung her spear forward, setting a small field of green beneath her feet. As the green settled, a pair of translucent green dragons sprang forth from the ground and rose into the air. The light from the field seemed to spread out by their influence and settled over us. As it did, I felt my fatigue leave me and some of my energy returned. This wasn't an attack like Freya had said. It was Reis' Wind!

The Zuu came to the conclusion that it wasn't really an attack a second too late. As our wounds healed, the Zuu began to flap its wings furiously. My first thought was that it was trying to get away, but when the white light spread out over its body, I saw that wasn't the case.

"Vivi, we need to end this soon," Zidane said. "Another spell should kill it."

"Alright," the little mage nodded. He faced the bird again and powered up a final spell.

The Zuu had other plans than dying though. It powered up a spell as well and the white light from before washed over it. It regained its stability in flight and went straight onto attacking. It powered up another Aera spell, setting it in the center of the room where we were all standing. We had a good fraction of a second to react before the spell went off at full force and knocked everyone back against the walls.

The wind was knocked from my lungs again as I slammed against the trunk. I heard a loud crack from my chest as well. Pain suddenly began to well up there and it left me wondering what kind of injury I just got.

As I tried to recover, my hand brushed against the wall. I felt a small opening in the wall that I hadn't noticed before. I looked and saw a small bit of red wood sticking out. Curious as I was, I had to examine it. If it was what I though it was, then we were just about to get a desperately needed break in this fight.

I reached into the hole and graded hold of the red wood, pulling it out gingerly. As I thought, it was a staff. The Fire Staff, if I was correct. Vivi could use this. If the Zuu didn't want to be shocked, then we'd see how well it could handle being burned.

I looked around furiously for Vivi. Luckily, he was only a few feet away and was stirring. He sat up and looked on at the Zuu.

"Vivi!" I called out. I began to crawl my way over to him. Considering how much my chest hurt, I probably broke a rib in the last slam against the wall. Vivi seemed to understand what was going on and got up and walked towards me. He knelt down beside me.

"Vivi, can you use this?" I asked as I handed him the Fire Staff. He took it and examined it.

"Wow…where'd you find this?" he asked.

"Not important," I said weakly. Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. Actually, moving in general was painful. A warm burning sensation came over my lungs and seemed fill them like fluid in a cup. Maybe I broke more than a rib in that crash.

"Yeah, I can use this," Vivi said. He stood back up for a second, until I began to wonder where the Zuu was. About a second later, my hand shot out and grabbed Vivi by the collar and pulled him down. The Zuu came swooping in again, aiming at Vivi. It was off by inches by the time came in and swooped around.

As the Zuu picked up speed and flew out of the room again, I pushed Vivi to his feet.

"Cast the spell," I said. As long as the monster stayed outside our melee attacking range, Vivi was the only one who could retaliate.

The Zuu flew outside the tree and hovered just outside the tornado. It turned and set its sights on Vivi. If it made another beeline for Vivi, there would be nothing I could do. I could only lay beside the mage and watch.

As Vivi charged magic, the Zuu let out a bloodthirsty roar. It circled once before flying in at breakneck speed at Vivi. I held my breath, unsure of what to do.

As the monster came back into the trunk, I thought we were done for, but it let its guard down.

"LANCER!"

Freya gave one more lunge at the beast, sinking her spearhead deep into its chest. She didn't hit the massive thing hard enough to really stop it, but she did manage to deflect its course. Instead of hitting Vivi, it veered off into a wall, slamming in at full speed. Her technique made ripping into the bird's chest and sending it off course all too easy. A second later, Zidane joined in the fray and slashed the bird right along the chest.

"Vivi, hurry up!" he called. "We can't hold it for long!"

I looked at Vivi and saw that he was nearly done. His eyes shot open after the spell was done and rocketed it at the enemy. His new spell, Fira, blew right into the Zuu, setting its insides on fire as a vicious geyser exploded out its back. It rained lava down over the Zuu's body as the monster's insides either melted or were burnt to a crisp. Freya and Zidane had to back up in order to avoid getting burned themselves.

After a few seconds, the flames stopped sprouting and the monster stopped twitching. The air soon filled with the smell of burnt chicken and feathers. We had finally won.

"Nice job," I said with a pained laugh form the floor.

"Are you alright Trevor?" Zidane asked as he walked over.

"I'm fine," I said. A wince of pain in my chest made me correct myself however. "Except I may have broken a rib."

"Hang on a moment," Freya said as she steadied her spear in front of herself. She concentrated for a moment, and then released another Reis' Wind. My wounds seemed to heal up and my chest stopped hurting. I was finally able to stand again without risk of puncturing myself on a broken bone.

"Freya, why did you use Reis' Wind back there during the fight and call it an attack?" I asked as soon as I was to my feet.

"Two reasons," she began. "The obvious one was to heal us. We were hurt and the fight just kept dragging on."

"And the second reason?"

"To fool the monster," she explained simply. "It was smart and knew how to set up a strategy, but I don't think it ever fought a Dragon Knight before. That's why I was able to lunge at it so successfully. It never saw them coming."

"And you set it up like it was an attack-"

"So that the monster would stay off of Vivi while he cast his spell."

I nodded with a grin. It was a good plan she came up with. Two things done in one move. Not a bad tactic at all.

"By the way, how'd you do that Vivi?" Zidane asked. "I didn't know you had an attack that powerful."

"Well, Trevor found a new staff for me just now and it made my Fire stronger," Vivi answered. "I like it."

We all shared a round of relived laughter. It had been an incredibly tough march to get up here, but we made it somehow. Zidane was the first to get to the ladder on the other side of the room.

"Let's get going guys," he said. "If we hurry, we might get some dinner in before it gets too dark."

"More survivors, I presume?" came a voice from nowhere. I looked around quickly and saw a Cleyran standing at the top of the ladder, looking down at us. His green robe and white mask made him look more like a nurse than the peacekeepers I had originally thought of them as, but it didn't matter to me. A friendly face meant we were finally here.

"My name is Freya Crescent," Freya said, introducing herself. "I am a Dragon Knight sent by Regent Cid to aid any surviving Burmecians. My associates are Zidane Tribal from Lindblum, Trevor McEvoy from Alexandria University, and Vivi Orunitia. We have come to help."

XXXXXXXX

You know, I always wanted to end a chapter on a quote, but they never seemed good enough until now. This one just struck me, you know?

Well, I suppose I owe everyone an explanation. Being gone for months, then showing up without warning and writing a chapter that's about 2000 words longer than I originally planned. Not to mention one of the best fight scenes I can remember writing. Well, I guess my excuse is that I'm partially insane. Does that work for you?

I'm not sure when my next chapter will be out, but trust me, you'll like what it builds up to. Things are going to be happening a little differently from the game, as you may have pondered about from the beginning on the chapter. I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that enough reviews may encourage me to work on Shattered Mind a little more.


	5. Cleyra City of the Doomed

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's Notes: Wow, the review count has been really down there, hasn't it? I suppose it's because of the work I've been putting towards my novel, but don't worry, I need this story for more than retaining my sanity. This is the best way for me to practice writing and getting reliable feedback on how I'm doing. The people who wait patiently for an update and who leave a review are awesome. The most recent (and lengthy) review left by Xanthera managed to give me the energy to finish the chapter up. Just shows you what a good review can accomplish.

Also, I'd like to add that this is my longest chapter ever! More than 11700 words and 30 pages of Shattered Mind goodness! :D Enjoy.

Chapter 5- Cleyra- City of the Doomed.

XXXXXXXX

Even before we got into the city, I knew Cleyra wasn't going to be anything like what we had seen coming up the trunk. A large wreath of flowers framed the tunnel leading into town. The flowers converged on the ground and lead the way forward along the outside of the path. We all gazed at the sudden scenery change as we were lead into the darkened pathway, only to have the entire town open up to us in the light at the end of the tunnel. It was like the entire city was one enormous garden.

"Wow, this place is amazing!" Vivi remarked. "Do you think they have any windmills around here?"

Cleyra was built on several levels carved out of the wood. Entire building sat comfortably as the sand continued to shift outside. The top of the tree was open, revealing the top edges of the sandstorm as well as the darkening blue sky above it. Even though evening was setting in and the color was fading, it was still nicer to see than the dull tornado outside.

Although the first two layers of the city seemed to exist only as a path upwards with sand flowing down it like water, the rest of the city was mostly green and stood out beautifully. A pair of Cleyran oracles were waiting down at the lowest level of the city, including the one who had addressed us moments after defeating the Zuu.

"Excuse me," asked one of the veiled Cleyrans at the entrance to town. "Might you be Lady Freya?"

"Indeed, I am." The Dragon Knight answered. She stepped forward and addressed the townspeople properly.

"We have awaited your coming, my lady," the Cleyran oracle said with a religiously passive voice.

"You have?"

"The King of Burmecia has requested that we guide you to him," the second oracle stated.

"Long live the King!" Freya exclaimed with more energy than she had shown all day. "Take me to him immediately!"

"At once, my lady," the first Cleyran said before calmly walking up the path to the cathedral at the top of the city.

Freya turned to face the rest of us. "Zidane, I shall go to see the king. Why not take this chance to rest?"

"I like that idea," I piped in suddenly. I got a raised eyebrow from the oracle still standing by. I hoped she didn't think I was too boorish or anything.

"Yeah, good idea," answered Zidane with a nod.

"This way, my lady," the first Cleyran called back to Freya. The Dragon Knight turned and nodded at us before following the Oracle to the top of the tree. They disappeared into the middle of the city soon enough.

The remaining Cleyran coughed once to get the attention of the rest of us.

"Gentlemen, please allow me to be your guide and show you our town," she said calmly. She draped her arm out dramatically, like she was revealing a prize to us. Her offer seemed kind, but I already knew enough of the town. Playing the game about a hundred times would do that for a person.

"Sure, I think we could use it," Zidane answered for us. Vivi went along and nodded with him.

"Actually, I think I'll check it out on my own," I said. "I'm not one for tours."

Zidane just shrugged. "Alright man, it's your call. Just meet back at the inn before nightfall."

"Right, right," I waved as I walked off. I briefly wondered if I should warn him about the Burmecians possibly attacking Vivi, but I brushed it off. If the little mage knew about something like that happening, it would just make him worried and depressed. Besides, the Cleyrans would be able to handle keeping the Burmecians in line.

As I looked around through the sunlight kissed leaves, I felt some of my energy return. There was a bird chirping somewhere. Now, if I had a lawn chair and a glass of soda, the picture would be complete. This kind of scenery was my very definition of a nice day.

The middle of the town was supposed to be a center of activity, but it seemed that most people would rather stay inside today. My guess was that there were too many injured to go out and socialize outside. It was too bad since the center of town seemed to have a lot to offer. On one end, I could see the windmill pumping water up into a reservoir for later use. The road then lead into the middle of town right in front of he inn. There were a few stores scattered about, each decorated with a ton of flowers. It seemed like a good place to do business. Happy settings made people feel better, and when people felt good, they were more willing to buy things. These Cleyran businessmen were clever psychologists.

As I wandered, I found myself walking towards the eastern side of town. I walked beyond the inn and headed towards a small gazebo set just inside the whirling tornado. I remember some of the characters from the game saying how much they enjoyed the view from it, so I decided to check it out myself.

The gazebo was bigger than it seemed in the game. There was plenty of room to move around and it seemed remarkably sturdy. I walked to the far end and held onto the railing, enjoying the view. The sandstorm seemed to move slower here and was rather relaxing. It made me feel like meditating.

Or better yet, trying some Tai Chi.

It had been a long time since I practiced. Truth be told, I had nearly forgotten about it what with all the things happening around Gaia lately. Practicing again would even help my magic later.

I shifted my leg back, getting into the ready position. I pressed my arms against my chest, as if holding an invisible ball. With a breath to relax my muscles, I began practicing my Yang form, running through the steps in an offbeat dance as best I could perform them.

Normally, running through these steps gave me a jolt of energy by the time I finished the form, like lightning was flowing through my veins. This time however, it seemed to sap my energy. As I ran through the form for the third time, I just became more and more exhausted. I just blamed old-fashioned lethargy for it and went on with the moves. Still, I kept trying, thinking my energy would come back if I continued a little longer. Not the case.

As I went on, the lethargy increased. Before I knew it, my eyes fluttered shut and I collapsed, passing out moments later.

XXXXXXXX

When I woke up, I had a swelling headache. I gripped the top of my head and clenched my eyes before opening them, revealing a near blinding white room. It seemed to go on forever in every direction, like the blank training room from the Matrix.

I stood up, trying to get my bearings straight while figuring out what was going on. This place didn't exist in Cleyra.

"Is there nowhere you'll go to annoy me?" came a voice suddenly. I turned around and saw a man about my age sitting on a pile of books, with an open one in his hands. What was really surprising though was that he looked just like me, save for his hair, which only reached his chin, and his clothes, which composed of dark blue reflective armor. The armor seemed to outline his muscles the way an ancient Greek statue did and the shoulder armor carried themselves out a few inches beyond his shoulders.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The man threw the book onto the ground and jumped to his feet.

"So not only do you break in here and piss me off, you don't even recognize me," he accused. "Thanks a lot dipshit."

I blinked at first, remembering where I had seen the man before. He appeared in my vision when I went unconscious in Dali. He was the face in the mirror.

"…Kaiten?"

"Finally, a dim bulb grows brighter," he remarked.

I walked around as Kaiten stood a few feet away from his books. I ignored his comment and picked up on of the books. The title on the cover read: "Sixth Grade".

"What's with these books?" I asked.

"They're your memories," Kaiten explained, arms crossed stubbornly across his chest. "Each one covers a slightly different part of your life, but most of them overlap. Do you have any idea how badly you categorize things?"

"Memories?" I said. I flipped through the book in my hands and found a section dedicated to the time I was shoved into a tank of cockroaches and the glass broke, releasing the bugs. The book recorded everything correctly, including the part about how the person who did it was suspended for two weeks and fined for breaking the glass.

"Kaiten, where are we?" I asked, putting the book down.

"Do I need to explain everything to you?" he snapped. "If you can see me like this, then we're clearly inside your head. The subconscious to be exact."

I froze up. I looked at the pile of books. I grabbed a few more of them, reading the titles of each one. "College, Sword Club, Shadow." Each one covered some varied aspect of my life. The pile seemed a little thin, but then again, I had never seen a person's memories literally put to books, so I had nothing to compare against.

"Why am I here?" I asked, confused as hell.

"How the hell should I know?" Kaiten retorted. "All I want is for you to get out as soon as possible."

"You could be a little less of an asshole you know."

"Go to hell."

My teeth bared themselves on reflex. Kaiten, as much as I tried to get along with him, was just infuriating. I turned around and walked away from everything.

"Where are you going?" Kaiten demanded.

"I'm looking for a door, a portal, or whatever. Anything that'll get me out of here."

"I tried that already. This place is spherical. The only things here are me and these damn books. You'll just end up here again."

I stopped walking and threw my hands in the air. "So I'm just supposed to wait here for some miracle to happen?"

"Trust me, it'd be a miracle for us both."

I walked back to Kaiten and got in his face.

"Are you still just trying to piss me off?" I asked with a bit of venom in my voice.

"Does that matter right now?"

Getting into a fight here was pointless, I knew. As much as I wanted to kick Kaiten's face in, I shrugged him off and grabbed another book. This one was titled "Childhood."

As I flipped through the first few pages, I noticed that the paper was blank. I scanned the rest of the book, finding words only in the last few dozen pages. The words depicted my life starting when I was about five. It was my earliest memory. My mother had just died and my father and I were moving to a new town.

"So this is what you do all day?" I asked, trying to make nice. "Just read my memories?"

"Unless I'm resting or fighting for you, yes," Kaiten said, with a glare.

"Hey, that reminds me," I began. "Why didn't you help me in that fight with the Zuu earlier?"

"Because every time you get into a fight it's, 'Kaiten, help me', and when we're not it's simply 'Shut up'. Then there's that dream of yours you keep bothering me to look into. Just give me some time for myself to rest dammit! Do you have any idea how tiring it is in here?"

I brought my hand to my forehead as I sighed. Perhaps he had a point. I didn't know what it was like in his position, so assuming he would always just come out to help was a little presumptuous. But that still didn't answer all of my questions.

"Well what about with Beatrix then?" I asked. "If you don't want to help me so much, then why did you take over my body and fight her?"

"That wasn't to help you," he explained. "I wanted to get out and fight for myself for once. I was tired of just assisting."

"So, you went and recklessly fought like that for kicks?"

"More or less."

"And you call me reckless!"

"You are reckless! I have years of military experience in fighting! You were in an amateur sword fighting club for a few months!"

I had had enough. Kaiten wasn't going to be helpful anytime soon and was just getting on my nerves by this point.

"Fine, you know what?" I started. "Don't help me. Just laze around here and read all day."

I grabbed a book from the pile and tossed it into the air out of frustration. It landed behind me, spine down. Suddenly, the sound of music filled the air. I quickly recognized it as a group of violins playing Pachelbel's Canon. Its peaceful tune soon calmed the situation.

"How the hell did you do that?" Kaiten asked.

"I'm not sure," I told him. I walked over to the book and read the cover. It said "Music". The page it had opened to was a page of sheet music for Pachelbel's Canon in D, one of my favorite classical music songs. Curious, I filled to another page. The pages settled, revealing the lyrics and tune for Blind Guardian's _Mirror, Mirror_. The music began pumping through the air.

"I didn't know you could do that," Kaiten said, walking up behind me. He kicked the music book shut, cutting off the music.

"You've never tried throwing books around to see if it would do anything?" I half-heartedly joked.

I grabbed another book from the pile and set it face-up on the ground. The page was opened to a time from my high school days. The white space around us shifted to display the large main hallway inside my old high school. A dirty blue rug was spread out below us. Brick walls reached the ceiling twenty feet above us, interrupted only by doorways and display cases, filled to the brim with academic, scholastic and sports awards. I looked around, amazed at what I was seeing.

"This is…interesting…" Kaiten said. He seemed as intrigued as I did.

A bell went off all of a sudden. Soon, several of the classroom doors opened up. I looked around, trying to see what was going on. People passed right through Kaiten and myself, like we were only holograms. I noticed some of my old friends, like Chris, Patrick and Kyle, but if this was my memory, then I should be around here somewhere.

"Hey, nimrod," Kaiten said. "Did you used to have shorter hair?"

Ignoring his first remark, I answered. "Yeah, it barely reached my chin in high school."

"Then I think I found you."

Kaiten pointed to my old Theatre class. I saw my younger self walking out, brushing his shorter hair out of his face while carrying a set of books. If I was in this class, then this must have been in my junior year of school.

"Okay, if this is what I think it is, then-"

"Trevor!"

The young me turned around to see a girl with flowing raven hair running up behind him. He turned with a smile and greeted her.

"Hey Nicole. What's up?"

"Nothing. I just got done with that geography test."

"Really? How'd you do?"

"Mmm, not bad. I owe you for quizzing me on it," she smiled.

Kaiten grunted from my side. "Who's that? An old flame?"

I resisted the urge to punch the annoying bastard, knowing he would just escalate things. "Her name is Nicole Stacy. We went out for almost two years in high school."

It was amazing seeing Nicole again. Truth be told, I still thought about her every now and then. She even flashed into my mind back during the Festival of the Hunt when I was about to be killed by the Zaghnol.

"So why did you two break up?" Kaiten asked.

"Huh?"

Kaiten turned with a raised eye. "You're not freaking out on me here, are you?"

I paused for a moment, getting lost in the scene. "We both knew from the start that we wouldn't be together beyond high school. We split up and went to different colleges."

As I watched, Nicole grabbed the young me's arm as they walked together down the hall. They walked right passed me. I wanted to raise my hand and brush Nicole's shoulder for old time's sake, but my hand just went right through her, like I was a ghost. I pulled my hand back and watched them leave.

"Are we still on for this weekend?" Nicole asked, grinning up with her cute smile at the young me.

"Of course," young me told her. He brushed his hand through her hair softly, making her giggle.

God I missed those times.

"I have to get to my science club meeting now, but I'll see you later, ok?" she said.

"Alright, I'll see you later," came the reply. Nicole reached up and gave the old me a quick kiss on the cheek before running off to her meeting. The old me just wandered towards the buses, heading for home.

As the scene settled, I found the memory book laying in the middle of the hallway. I walked over to it and closed it before anything else could come out of it. The images all around us faded, returning Kaiten and me to the empty white room from before.

"Well that was interesting," Kaiten said. "Who would've thought you could do that with these books."

"Yeah," I said simply.

Seeing Nicole again shocked me more than I thought it would. For the first time since I came to Gaia, I really wanted to go home.

"Let's see what else we can watch," Kaiten said from behind me. "I think I found an Awkward Childhood Moments book around here somewhere."

I sighed, trying to get my mind off of everything for the moment. I walked to the pile of books and grabbed the first one I saw. It was a really large book, like two or three dictionaries put together. I checked the cover, surprised that I had actually grabbed one titled: "Trip to Final Fantasy IX". I flipped open to the middle of the book, but found the pages blank. I flipped through to the end and found the rest of the pages blank. Curious, I flipped to the front, finally finding written pages in the first quarter of the massive thing.

It was interesting seeing this book and reading about my experiences, even though they happened as recently as a week ago. Flipping to one page, I saw an excerpt from when Dante and I were fighting in the Festival of the Hunt. Another section revealed Zidane and myself fighting against the first Black Waltz in the Ice Cavern. Yet another section in Dali where I had been hit on the head and dragged to the underground room where Kaiten was shot into the back of my neck by the two old-

My eyes shot open at the opportunity I had here. I realized that I had seen things from the images I saw from my last memories that I didn't remember seeing, like the other people in the hallway. If these books could give images of what happened to a person, rather than just what he remembered, then I might have a chance to find out who did this to me and hunt them down. At the very least, I'd get a pair of faces to put to the voices.

I quickly opened to the right page and set the book on the ground. The white of the room quickly vanished and was replaced by the dark and gloomy cave underneath Dali. I saw the room where I had been tied to a post, but I wasn't here yet. I must have gotten my timing off by a little.

It wasn't perfect, but it was god enough, it turned out. A loud crack came through the room and I saw the doorway to the rest of the factory open up. Two of the men from Dali were dragging my limp body into the room where they slumped it against the pole.

"But he just looks like any normal guy," one of the men said. "Why would the old men want him?"

"I don't know," the second one said. "We've been doing all the gruntwork lately. First we kidnap that kid, then we jump this guy, then we stuff the kid in a box, next, and then we tie this guy to a post."

"Ooh, aren't you the naughty one? Better not tell your wife."

"Go to hell Frank."

The first guy laughed as he finished tying my hands up. He backed off when he was done and joined his co-worker by the door.

"Still, this guy just seems like some dull traveler, doesn't he?" the first guy said again. "What do you think they're going to do with him?'

"As long as they pay us, I don't care," the second said. The first man took this as an acceptable answer and the two of them left the room, closing the door behind themselves.

"Alright, now we wait," I said to myself. I sat down next to my unconscious counterpart, facing away from the door. I leaned back against my hands, waiting for the old men to show up. I leaned over to myself lazily.

"Hey," I said to my younger self. "Make sure you learn to stand Celebration. It's the only thing that gets the little voice you're going to be hearing soon to shut up."

I went back to leaning back, but I began to notice that the mist slowly began to increase. I looked deeper into the cave expectantly. A red light began to bleed into the air in the back of the cave. It held itself and began to form something slowly; clearly a teleportation beam.

Meanwhile, my younger self stirred. He shook his head, waking up slowly. I turned back to the light and saw the figures finish forming.

"Alright bastards," I said. "Who are you?"

"Are you sure he'd work?" came the first voice. From the red light came an elderly man in a white lab coat. He was balding heavily, making his head look like a bowling ball with a small rug glued to the middle and had a thinning mustache spread messily on his face. Everything about him seemed to suggest he lived a slovenly life. Only the large, chalk-gun-of-a-syringe waiting in his hands seemed to hold any order. Even then, the twisting green substance twisting inside the syringe seemed to hold a chaotic presence in itself.

"Who's there?" the me tied to the post demanded. The first old man frowned before pressing his boot down onto the hands of the bound me.

"He will work," came another old voice. I turned and saw the other old man step from the shadows. He was wearing a lab coat too, but I didn't seem any more than that. He kept his face hidden in the darkness of the cave.

"Bastard," I muttered. Keeping himself hidden like that, there was no way I could get a good look at him. "I can wait."

_Excuse me, are you alright?_

"What?" I looked around for the new voice. It sounded like a young woman. What was with me and hearing voices?

_Come on. Wake up._

"What's going on?"

I looked back at the second old man again. The world around me became fuzzier around me and quickly lost focus. I felt like I was lifted up before everything faded to black.

XXXXXXXX

My eyes batted open, revealing the gazebo in Cleyra again. I was laying down, no doubt after collapsing after practicing my Tai Chi earlier.

"Oh good, you're awake," came the voice from before.

I looked up and saw one of the flower maidens sitting down next to me. Her poofy tan dress took up most of my vision.

"Ugh…what happened…?" I asked as I sat up.

"You collapsed," the flower maiden asked. "You came through the trunk just now, didn't you? Maybe you're still tired. You should get some rest in the inn."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," I decided. The flower maiden gave me a hand up and was kind enough to walk me to the main street. I told her I was fine and she just nodded in understanding before leaving back for the gazebo.

The inn was easily the biggest building on the main street. Its deep blue roof went very well with the dull brown of the wood carved out of the tree that made up the walls. It was soothing. Add in the calming winds brushing through the leaves scattered about and anyone would feel at peace. I was going to sleep for days here.

"You bastard! You murdered my father!"

And once again, Lady Luck felt the need to kick me in the face.

I dashed into the inn, where I heard the shout come from. Inside, there were several Burmecians crowded together, yelling and screaming in protest. Someone was huddled against the wall behind the front desk, trying to hide himself as best he could. I struggled to get to the front, but managed to see from between two of the protesters that it was Vivi.

"Vivi!" I yelled over the crowd. The little guy was so scared that he didn't even hear me.

"Get the hell out of here!"

"Murderer!"

"How can you live with yourself?"

Everyone seemed to have a grudge against someone who not only never hurt them, but also came to help them. I felt myself swell in heated fury and knocked someone in the back of the head in response. He fell to the ground, which gave me enough space to jump over the counter and land in front of the little mage.

"Vivi," I said, grabbing his shoulders. "Vivi, are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

Vivi looked up at me, tears in his eyes. "T-Trevor," he stuttered. "Why are they doing this? I didn't hurt anyone!"

My mind seemed to melt into a more primal form as everything hit me. My rage burst, causing me to react with my usual level of I'm-going-to-kill-you violence.

"ENOUGH!"

I withdrew my short sword and swung it at the attackers, but no sooner had it come out of the sheath than a small translucent sphere cover the tip. I didn't notice it until the last moment when the blade hit the counter. The energy gathered at the tip exploded, taking the countertop with it. The closest Burmecians who had been yelling at Vivi were caught up in the blast and were knocked backwards fast. Some even managed to get kicked out of the front door. One was unlucky enough to smash through the wall, getting stuck in it halfway. The ones who were left suddenly stopped their assault all at once. Maybe they were confused at seeing someone defending a Black Mage. Maybe they were stunned silent from my attack. Quite frankly, I had so little grasp on a calm mind that I didn't care in the slightest.

"What the hell is wrong with all of you?" I yelled. "He's just a kid! He's done more to help all of you than any of you have for yourselves and you have the gall to gang up on him like this? What the hell?"

"What do you know?" one of the Burmecians cried out. "You didn't see what he did to our city."

"No, _you_ didn't see!" I snapped. "He managed to take out dozens of the forces that attacked your home and killed your families, but you just bunch him up with them because you're afraid. And now he came here to help all of you and you turn on him. Good job assholes!"

"Help us?" said another one. "What would he do to help us?"

"You think Alexandria is done with all of you? They came after you for more than just genocide! They didn't find it in Burmecia, so they're coming here to get it! They will attack and with their forces, you will all die. Vivi came here to help you, despite the suicidal odds, because he doesn't want you to die!"

The Burmecians finally seemed to settle down for real. One of the front-runners cleared his throat before addressing me.

"Okay, assume he did come here to help. Assume Alexandria really is coming to attack us again. What proof do you have that it's true?"

"He speaks the truth," came a new voice. Everyone, myself included, turned to the doorway and saw the King of Burmecia standing in the doorway. He had a pair of Cleyran advisors at each side and was looking the situation over. He carried himself with a proper regal attitude that was only matched by the elegant robe of blue and purple, as well as a golden crown. I could tell just by looking at him that he was a good person. He even managed to calm me down a little just by addressing the problem at hand.

"I came when I heard that my people were causing an uproar, but I never expected this," the king said. "We are guests here, yet you dare participate in such an uproar. You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

The Burmecians all gazed down at their feet, ashamed. If I were a little more immature, I would have reveled in it.

"I have heard from Dragon Knight Freya that this young mage is indeed here to help us. Any attempt made to harm him from now will be met with swift punishment."

"And you," the king said, addressing me. "I know you were trying to help your friend, but I implore you not to be so mindlessly destructive about it."

"My apologies," I said, still too pissed to do much else.

"Now you will all go back to your business," the king said again. "Help treat the wounded, draw extra water from the tree, gather food. I don't care what it is, but behave yourselves while you are here."

"Yes sir," the Burmecians all seemed to mutter.

The king nodded and exited, his advisors close behind him. The remaining Burmecians soon left as well, leaving Vivi, myself and a few Cleyrans alone in the building.

"Are you alright?" I asked Vivi, calming down immensely.

"Y-yeah," Vivi said with a sniffle.

"C'mon, let's get you up."

I grabbed Vivi's hand and lifted him to his feet. He brushed his robe off quietly and adjusted his hat once.

"Don't worry, they're not going to bother you again," I told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah. If they try messing with you again, I'll do this to them." I pointed to the demolished countertop to show Vivi what I meant.

"Not again, I'd imagine," said one of the Cleyrans. He opened the gate in the front counter and walked around it. I assumed he was the innkeeper. "You only got this kind of a reaction because of the pillowwood used to make up the counter. You're attack was merely amplified."

"Pillowwood?" I asked. It sounded fake, but then again, I was in a fantasy universe.

"Yes. It gathers energy very well, but often has this kind of a reaction when overloaded. I'm just glad you didn't use a thunder spell. You might have killed someone from the splinters."

I decided not to point out the Burmecian just now pulling himself out of the hole in the wall.

"Where'd you find this stuff?" I asked. "It's amazing."

"Oh, the entire tree is made from it. It has to do with the magical properties that make it grow like this." The innkeeper chuckled to himself for a moment. "And you wouldn't believe how well it heats the houses in the winter months. We barely need fires at all!"

"That's nice," I said. I turned once again to Vivi and knelt down next to him. "Hey, let's see if we can get out of here. This guy's starting to bore me."

"Um…okay," Vivi said, still a little shaky.

"Wait a moment," the innkeeper said suddenly. I stopped and faced him. "You still owe me for the damage you caused to my inn."

I looked back at the counter and only now realized just how badly I destroyed it. There pretty much was no more front counter anymore.

"I'm afraid that I will have to charge you for this."

"Um…how about I save your life when Alexandria attacks instead?" I offered, knowing that I didn't have enough money to actually pay for it.

"Nice try, but you'll either have to rebuild it yourself or provide the Gil for me to pay someone for it."

I took a breath in, trying not to panic. I wasn't the best at pressured financial situations like this.

"Look, I don't really have enough to cover this, but if you give me some time, I can pay you back. Would you take an IOU?"

"Hmm…" the innkeeper though. "You seem like the reliable sort, but how do I know you're not just saying that so you can skip out on me?"

"My name is Trevor McEvoy. I attend Alexandria University. I'm traveling with Freya Crescent and I'm the only person on the planet who can use Chi in combat, like the attack you saw earlier," I explained. "That should be enough info for you to find me should you get impatient."

"Very well," he decided. "Just make sure you come back. I do have a business to run."

"Gotcha," I said. "Let's go Vivi."

Vivi and I walked out of the inn and back into the sunlight. Some of the Burmecians from earlier were still stumbling about, but they paid us no mind. It was still a nice day out, and since I doubted that the innkeeper would let me get some rest in his inn and build more debt, I was going to have to find somewhere else to rest. Maybe there was a small grassy area I could pass out in for a while. At least things couldn't go any more downhill than they already had.

"Help! Someone! The Antlion's attacking a kid!"

Oh, god dammit.

Another Burmecian soldier came running up the stairs towards the front of the inn. He rushed to the small crowd that had formed outside the inn and explained the situation quickly. It was Dan, the soldier we had run into while traveling through Burmecia to save the king. It seemed that he had managed to get here with his family safe and sound.

"What is the matter?" one of the Cleyrans asked as Dan reached the front of the inn. The tired soldier took another breath in to settle himself.

"Th-The Antlion's mauling a kid!" he explained again.

"The Antlion!" the oracle said, surprised. "It is usually so docile… How could—"

"We gotta teach that beast a lesson!" Dan cried out. "He'll kill the kid if we don't!"

The oracle nodded. "This calls for immediate action," he said. "I shall inform the high priest at once."

Despite the oracle's words, he simply shuffled he feet as he walked away at a snail's pace. All Dan could really do was stare as the oracle acted like nothing urgent was going on. "Hey, buddy, why aren't you hurrying?" Dan called after him. He stomped the dirt after he didn't get a response. "These Cleyrans are all so damn lazy!"

Dan looked around the rest of us. Most of the Burmecians left or got out of the way before he had a chance to call on them to help. "Dammit people! What the hell?"

"I'll help you," I said, standing my ground. Vivi came out from behind me.

"I-I'll help too," he offered.

Dan looked us both over. He nodded after a second. "Alright, if you think you're good enough, I'll take it."

"Trevor!" came another voice. I turned and saw Zidane running down the stairs from the cathedral on top of town. "What's going on? Is there an attack?"

"Some Antlion's mauling some kid," I explained quickly. "Come on!"

All four of us rallied and rushed down to the bottom level of town as fast as we could manage. Several Cleyrans were amassed there already, helpless to do anything. Dan, Zidane, Vivi and I pushed our ways through, and making our way to the end of the bottom road. The wood from the trunk enclosed around us in the next room, forming a circular structure. Sand was spread all over the floor, but most notably along the left side of the room where it all swirled down into an enormous whirlpool.

There, in the middle of it, was the Antlion, swinging a small Burmecian kid from its enormous claws.

"So that's the Antlion!" Zidane said aloud. "Much uglier than I thought it would be."

Ugly was an understatement. I always hated the hairy bugs, but this one made them look like nothing. It looked like an extremely oversized ant, but it had hair all over its body that would easily cover my legs up to my knees were I to stand on its back. Its six outstretched legs were ended with a sharp sickled claw. It even had a big red face, with a set of razor sharp teeth, grinning horribly at us.

"This thing is normally docile?" I had to ask.

A scream came again from the kid hanging about ten feet above us. "Help me!"

"Hang in there, champ!" Zidane yelled up. "We're gonna save you!

"Everyone!" came Freya's voice as she ran into the room. "I heard what happened. Is the child alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Zidane nodded.

"Like hell, I'm fine!" the kid yelled back.

Freya's eyes widened at hearing the kid yell out. "That voice!" she cried out. 'Might it be Prince Puck!"

"Freya! Where you been!" the flailing prince cried out.

The Antlion didn't like the conversation though. It let out a roar that made the entire room shake before swinging its claws about, launching Puck right towards us. The young prince screamed as he soared through the air. He was about to crash into us before Dan jumped in the way and caught him.

"Gotcha!" Dan said.

Rather than thank Dan for the catch, Puck jumped up and started yelling at the Antlion. "That hurt, ya stupid jerk!"

"Your highness, get back!" Dan yelled.

The Antlion gave another room-shaking roar before swinging a massive claw at us.

"Here it comes!" Zidane shouted.

The claw hit the ground in the middle of the room. It raked sand back into the sand pit beneath itself. Zidane, Freya, Vivi and I spread out outside of the sand pit and stood on guard, weapons at the ready.

"You there," Zidane said to Dan as he began barking out orders. "Keep the kid safe."

"You got it," Dan said. He escorted Puck to the end of the room where the Antlion wouldn't be able to hit him.

Zidane turned back to us and continued his orders. "Guys, we'll attack from every front. Trevor, you and I'll flank him left and right. Freya, go from above. Vivi, launch a fireball in his face."

"Sounds easy enough," Freya said in her usual confidence.

"Ok, I'll try," said Vivi.

"Got it," I told him. I twirled a short sword once, psyching myself up.

The Antlion wasted no more time in waiting around. It brought two of its claws out and swung them in at our sides, sweeping across the room. Zidane and I had to dive to avoid getting hit. Vivi fell backwards and Freya simply jumped up. The claws passed harmlessly overhead while Freya landed on the giant bug's head.

"Trevor, go now!" Zidane called as we both got back up. We dashed around the sandpit and ran out of range of the Antlion's attacks. I found a spot to vault up onto the monster's back, grabbing onto some of the long hairs to pull myself up.

"Oh man, I'm going to hate myself for this," I muttered to myself.

Meanwhile, Freya began her assault. Her spear came down with frightening speed, piercing through the monster's natural armor of hair and thick skin. She swiped a trickle of blood through the air as her spear passed through on its first attack. The Antlion roared in pain and lowered its head so it could scratch her off. Seeing its attempt, Freya jumped away and landed on its back, a few feet away from where Zidane and I had finished pulling ourselves up.

"This isn't going to be easy," Freya said. "His skin's like iron."

"We'll get him," Zidane said. "We just need to find where his skin's the thinnest. Any ideas?"

"Bug skin is set like plate armor," I explained. "We just need to go for the joints, like the shoulders and elbows."

"Or the back of the neck," Zidane thought. Our faces all seemed to light up at how easy this just became. 'Vivi!" Zidane called out. "Hit it now! We'll attack after Vivi does."

As the three of us held our ground, the Antlion struggled as much as it could. We had to grab onto its hairs and hold ourselves low, much to my disgust.

"Oh god, kill me now," I said as I tried to subdue my hatred of bugs.

"It's not that bad Trevor," Zidane said. "Just hang on until Vivi—"

A loud explosion resounded from the other end of the room. With the Antlion worrying about us so much, Vivi had no problem charging up a spell. A Fira spell went off, blowing up in the monster's face and swirling around into a small whirlwind of flames.

"Now!"

At once, all three fighters on the monster's back stood up and dashed towards the back of the neck. Freya, with the longest reach, got the first hit in, swiping at the back of the bug's neck. A spray of blood came out, along with a shout of pain from the Antlion. Zidane came in from the side next and gouged open the wound Freya had made to an even deeper one.

I came in with the last attack and drove both short swords into the wound, separating them and opening the crack in its neck, allowing the blood to pool up shallowly.

The pain must have been insanely bad for the Antlion, because it began thrashing about wildly. It rocked from side to side so hard that Freya and Zidane were knocked off to different sides of the room. I wanted to shout out to them to make sure they were okay, but I had to keep a death grip on my swords to keep from falling off. They were wedged into the back of the monster's neck, so I had a steady place on its back.

After a few moments, the thrashing settled down and seemed to stop. I tried to pull my short swords out for another attack, but they were stuck too tightly. I let go of one and tried to get the other one out alone. One short sword was better than nothing.

"Trevor, get out of there!" Zidane cried out.

I looked over at the blonde thief and saw that he was nearly at the same level that I was. The sand pit was creeping up, slowly burying the Antlion. Or rather, the Antlion was submerging.

"Trevor!"

"My swords are stuck!" I called back.

"We'll get you new ones! Just move!"

As we argued, the sand came over the monster's back. It began pouring over my feet and seeped into the bloody wound.

"Trevor!"

With one final pull, I managed to yank one of the short swords free. It came too late however, as the sand buried my feet and began climbing up to my knees.

Before panic could set in however, I felt a pair of arms grab me around the chest. In a fraction of a second, I was pulled free of the sand. I flew for a second before landing on the stable sand at the front of the room. The arms fell away from me and I collapsed, turning around to see Freya standing over me.

"Thanks for the save," I said.

"No problem," she answered. "Just be more careful in the future."

"Right, right," I said. My gaze turned downward in disappointment. In the battle, I lost one of my short swords. I could only sheathe the one remaining sword and learn to cope with it. I was going to have to replace the second one—and soon—or else I was going to have a major handicap in the upcoming battle with Alexandria.

"Wow, not bad you guys," Puck said. "I thought that thing was going to rip your heads off."

"Your vote of confidence has been noted," I uttered sarcastically.

"It's not dead," Freya said solemnly. "It just went under the sand to get us off of its back.

True enough, the Antlion burst out from under the sand seconds later, pissed off as ever. It glared at all of us, and drew its breath in. If I knew what was coming, I would have gone for cover.

The Antlion let out a breath, sending sheets of sand our way. The wind wasn't enough to push us around, but the sand grated our skin, tearing it apart as we tried to cover ourselves. I could only pray that the others were having an easier time than I was. I could feel blood begin to trickle down my arms and drip off my elbows as I shielded my face.

The attack only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to have a devastating effect. I opened my eyes to see how the others were doing, but couldn't see anything. Up, straight ahead, to the side; all I could see was sand directly in front of me.

"Guys?" I called out. "Where are you? Are you alright?"

"Trevor!" I heard Zidane call out. "We've been blinded by the sand. Just stay where you are!"

Rather than walk blindly into the Antlion's clutches, I kneeled down, keeping myself low, hoping it wouldn't see me as a target in case it attacked.

"Stay there you four! I'll get to you," came another voice. Dan's. It was good to know that we had some backup on the sidelines. It was lonely fighting a war with only four people.

As I sat, the Antlion grew impatient. It bellowed once, shaking the room again. I heard a yell before a thundering crash came down a few feet away.

"What happened?" I yelled.

"Zidane's hit!" Freya said. "The Antlion got him!"

The words made my blood freeze. Zidane, hurt? With the attacks the Antlion was using, that most likely meant he was speared with its claw. I knew we had gotten hurt before, but what concerned me about this time was that he wasn't crying out in pain. That meant he was either knocked out, or-

"Trevor, get down!"

Even though I heard Freya call to me, I didn't have much time to react. A large, hairy thing, about as thick as a log slammed into my chest and sent me flying backwards. I fell to the floor and landed on my stomach. Sand crawled up my shirt as I skidded backwards. I stopped soon enough, but the wind was knocked out of me. I couldn't even take a breath in, I was hit so hard.

Since I couldn't see, I began to panic. I clawed at the sand blocking my view, trying desperately to get it away, but with each swipe, more sand would just float over in its position.

_Dammit_, I thought. Nothing was working and I couldn't breathe. This certainly wasn't the best of situations.

Things became worse when I heard the Antlion shift the sand and rake its claw near me. I just knew it was planning to skewer me like a shish-ka-bob. I picked myself up awkwardly and tried to get away, but I knew it was pointless. I could only hope the Antlion had bad aim.

"Look out!"

Instead of feeling a giant claw rip through me, I felt someone grab me and knock me backwards. I was on my back looking up when I heard the monster's claw tear into the sand where I had been laying down moments before.

"Take this and pour it over your eyes," my rescuer said. "They're eye drops. They'll get rid of the sand for you."

He handed me a vial and popped the top open. I wasted no time in using them. As the cool liquid washed over my face, the sand dispersed. In a few seconds, I could see again. I scanned the area and saw Vivi and Zidane under Freya's care on the far side of the room, just by the entrance. Puck was standing by with them. I turned my head a little and saw Dan standing over me. He offered me a hand to get up.

"You four certainly seem to get into a lot of trouble around here," he said as a joke.

"You have no idea," I told him.

Dan and I were caught by surprise when an explosion ripped through the air. The Antlion's head was caught up in another whirlwind of fire. Vivi was standing before it, charging up another spell.

"We need to stop it before things get any more out of hand," Dan said. "Here, grab my hand and hang on."

I took hold as he said before asking, "Hang on for what?"

Dan didn't answer. Instead, he jumped up to the ceiling of the room just like Freya would and landed on the monster's back. I was covered in a field of knee-high bug hair again. My life was, once again, hell.

"God, not this again!"

"Just start slashing at something!" Dan cried out.

"With WHAT? A weed whacker? Some of these hairs are as thick as my wrists!"

"The hell's a weed whacker?"

"A miracle weapon crafted by the gods themselves!"

"Just hurry up and start fighting. It might go under again!"

Getting over my problem for the moment, I took out my one remaining short sword and dashed for the neck where the other was still buried. I grabbed hold of it and tried to pull it free. Unfortunately, it was still stuck. Rather than waste any more time though, I began to hack and slash at whatever part of the Antlion that I could.

"That's good, keep it up!" Dan yelled as he went away at the monster's hairy back.

The Antlion clearly wasn't having a good time and roared in pain and anger at us. It began thrashing about to knock us off, but because of Dan's remarkable balance and my holding onto my stuck sword, neither of us fell off. The Antlion then did the obvious thing to do and began submerging itself to get us off.

"Great," Dan muttered. "Do what you can to finish here then get off!"

"Hang on," I told him. "I have an idea."

Considering how thick the monster's hide was and how bad the angles were for using Pulse, my next move was to use my newest attack, Explosion.

"Dan, get back," I said. "I don't know how big this will be."

Dan nodded and jumped over to the Antlion's head behind me. Meanwhile, I sent all the energy I could into my remaining short sword. It formed into a glowing purple sphere of raw power at the tip, ready to go off at any second. I swung the blade up, then slammed it against the monster's back. It exploded outward, taking out the armor covering the Antlion's back, and to my relief, destroying much of the hair in place there. Beneath us, the monster screamed in protest.

"Wow, nice trick," Dan said.

"Thanks," I said. "I found out I could use it about 20 minutes ago."

As the Antlion thrashed, it bent its head at random. In one turn, my short sword came loose from its neck. I pulled it free and smiled. "Got it."

With the injuries it sustained, the Antlion began to sink again. The sand came over its back and began edging over my feet.

"Alright, finish it off before it sinks again," Dan said. "One more hit like that last one should finish it off."

I nodded, but as I charged up my sword again, a thought came over me. This monster was enormous, terrifying at first glance, and possibly useful. I didn't know how many Alexandrians we were going to face when they came, and if I could find a way to trick them into here, it might be able to finish some of them off. It wouldn't win the battle, but it would hurt Alexandria and would make them suffer for Cleyra, as well as Burmecia. The possibilities…

I powered down my sword and sheathed it.

"What are you doing?" Dan demanded. "Kill it!"

"It learned its lesson," I said. "This thing seems important to the Cleyrans. I don't think they'd like their guests killing their pet."

Dan clearly didn't like what I was thinking, but he didn't protest. He just sighed as he shook his head.

"Whatever. Let's just leave."

I climbed onto the head of the beast as the sand covered up the rest of the back. Dan took my hand with his and leapt off the monster. We landed by the entrance where the others were waiting.

"Not too bad you two," Freya said. "I couldn't have done better myself."

"Thanks," Dan and I said at the same time.

"Hey, how's Zidane?" I asked.

"I'm fine," the blonde thief said from the floor. "Just a whopping bruise by now. Nothing a potion can't fix."

"Always the optimist."

As the Antlion sank and disappeared beneath the sand again, Freya knelt down and bowed to Puck. "Are you alright, Your Highness?" she asked.

Puck responded with a very unroyal, "Hey, Freya! Whassup?"

"But how can this be?" Freya asked. "I heard that Your Highness disappeared upon leaving Burmecia..."

"Uh...yeah!"

"Well, let us go at once to the cathedral to inform His Majesty!"

"My old man, huh?" Puck stood still for a moment, lost in thought. "Nah, I don't want to see him! Just tell him I said hi, okay? Later!"

"But, Your Highness!"

Freya's words drifted off, unheard by Puck as he ran off. He dashed back once and gave Vivi a friendly smile and a slap on the back, then ran off again.

"He's the first friend I ever had." Vivi said as he watched Puck run off.

"Ah, you'll see him again later," I assured him.

"Really?" Vivi asked hopefully.

"Sure. That guy doesn't seem to be the type to just run off and stay away."

"Hey, you," came Dan from behind, looking at me. "What's your name again?"

"Trevor McEvoy," I said.

"You have some pretty good moves. Maybe we can fight together again when Alexandria attacks."

"I look forward to it," I said in all honesty. Dan was a good fighter and I always hated the scene in the game where he was killed. He and his family seemed to stand out for me.

"Hey, I also have a supply of armor and weapons if you need any," Dan said. "You kind of look like you need it," he said, pointing to the hole in my shirt and armor.

"Heh, I nearly forgot about that," I said. "I think I'll take you up on that offer later."

"Alright, then," he said. "I need to get back to my family. I'll see all of you later."

We all saw Dan leave before making our next moves.

"I need to report this to his Highness," Freya said. "I'll head back to the cathedral."

"I think I'll go with you," Zidane said. "I'd like to meet this king myself."

"Fine, as long as you behave yourself."

"Me? Misbehave? Freya, I'm insulted."

I wasn't surprised when Freya just rolled her eyes. "Vivi, are you coming?"

"Um, I'm a little tired actually," he said. "I think I'm going to go take a nap."

"Okay then," Zidane said. "We'll see you later, ok?"

"Alrighty."

"Trevor, you coming?" Freya asked.

"Sure, I guess I could—"

"_Hey, moron!_"

_Oh god, why now?_

"Actually, I'm going to go off and explore the town a little more," I lied. "That gazebo's pretty nice with the sunset shining through the sandstorm."

"Alright then, we'll see you later too."

"Later guys."

Freya and Zidane both left for the top of the city and Vivi went off towards the inn. That left me, myself, and the voice in my head.

_What do you want Kaiten?_

And here I was hoping he would leave me alone for the rest of the day.

"_Next time you open a book in here, tell me about it before you just run off like that_."

_Oh gee, I'm soooo sorry._

"_It wasn't even that good. Nothing really happened_."

Upon realizing what Kaiten had said, my breath got caught in my throat. _Wait, you saw what happened?_

"_Yes, I was ten feet away from you when you opened it!_"

I couldn't help the grin that plastered itself across my face. If Kaiten had seen who was in the room, then my idea hadn't been a complete failure!

_Who was it then?_ I demanded.

"_Who was what?_"

…_The guys who attacked me in the cave! Didn't you see them?_

"_I wasn't watching them. There were some guys stuffing the kid into a box out here_."

The elation I had felt before was now as dried out as the sand underneath my feet. If Kaiten hadn't seen who it was, then I was no closer to finding out who had done this to me than earlier.

_Is there any chance you could watch the memory again and see who the two old men were?_

"_And do you a favor? No. Besides, I already know who my target is_."

_That Innural guy?_

"_Yup_."

_Then help me find my targets and I'll help you get yours._

"_I don't need your help! I can take over your body whenever I want. If I see him, he's dead_."

_You're not taking over my body again Kaiten!_

"_Keep telling yourself that_."

_Kaiten!_

"_Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to things on my side_."

_Don't you walk away from me!_

"_I couldn't even if I wanted to_."

_Kaiten! …Kaiten!_

My voice only echoed in my head. Whatever Kaiten was doing, he wasn't responding. I was left with my thoughts and the realization that I had no way to get him to help me. Out of frustration, I stomped off to the gazebo, hoping that the view would calm me down.

The sand storm swirled softly over the middle of town. I sat in one of the benches and took a few deep breaths. I had to get control of my anger faster, or something bad was bound to happen.

"Damn."

A feeling of dread washed over me as I stared into the sand storm. How long was it before it collapsed? How long did we have to prepare ourselves from Alexandria's attack? There were just too many questions and not enough answers. I simply sank into the bench and tried to rest.

Time passed by quickly. I must have passed out at some point because the next thing I remember was one of the Flower Maidens shaking me, trying to wake up. She was the same one from earlier that day, if my memory was correct.

"You like sleeping here, don't you?" she asked.

"Huh?" I muttered, disoriented. "What time is it?"

"It's evening," she said, with a sense of disheartenment.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, sensing it.

The Flower Maiden paused for a moment, still distressed, before answering. "The sand storm has disappeared," she answered slowly. "We're open to attack from Alexandria at any time."

I gazed out over the raining of the gazebo. Even though it was dark out, I could tell the sand storm was gone. There was no sight of it, and the sound of the wind blowing through the air resounded in the covered platform.

"How did this happen?" I asked quickly.

"We don't know!" she replied. "We performed a dancing ritual to strengthen the sand storm, but then the harp we carry our sacred crystal upon broke."

"It broke?"

"Yes, the strings just snapped. With them gone, the sand storm can't maintain form. It's down now and Alexandria will invade us at any time!"

"Calm down," I said. "Everything will be fine. Is anyone doing anything?"

"Lady Freya was looking for you. She and the others of your party were planning on going down into the truck and seeing what happened once the sun came back up."

I stood up quickly. "Where is she?" Freya's plan to go down into the truck is part of why Cleyra fell. If Cleyra had taken a defensive position instead of an offensive one, then they would have lasted longer. Maybe it would have even survived.

"She's gathering a force outside of the inn," the Flower Maiden said. "Please, do what you can to help us. I don't want to lose my home."

I grabbed her shoulders and tried my best to reassure her.

"Don't worry. I have a plan. If it works, then you won't have to worry about a thing." It was a lie, but the important thing was to calm her down so she could do what was needed to survive.

"O-Ok, thank you," she said with sad eyes.

I got up to leave, heading down to the inn. Indeed, Freya was gathering a force to investigate the trunk. There was a crowd of Burmecian soldiers, as well as some Cleyrans, circling her as she stood up, giving a speech to rally the troops.

"If we go down into the trunk, we might find what happened," Freya announced. "And if we find that, we can restore power to the sand storm and save Cleyra!" The crowd roared in excited agreements. Several people encouraged Freya to go and lead a group down while others laughed, feeling that their savior was upon them in the form of a Dragon Knight.

The problem was that it was the wrong plan of attack. I had to stop it.

I pushed my way through the crowd and got to the middle where Freya was standing. Zidane ad Vivi were behind her, giving her their full support.

"Freya!" I called out, trying desperately to get her attention.

"Trevor, there you are," she said. "I was looking for you. I want you to help us go down into the trunk and—"

"No, Freya that's the wrong thing to do," I said. "The statistics are against you!"

Freya didn't seem amused by my accusation however. "What are you talking about?" she asked, somewhat angered.

"The sand storm is gone, we have to accept that. Otherwise we're going to waste precious time doing something we can't reasonably hope to do." I explained quickly. "We have to prepare for Alexandria's attack. There's no way they'd pass up an opportunity like this."

"Then we'll go out and meet them going down the trunk," Freya retorted.

I just shook my head. "Freya, you're a brilliant fighter, but you could use some lessons on battle plans."

"What?"

"When meeting one force with an offensive front, you generally have to have your forces on at least a one to one ratio. Otherwise, you won't be able to bust through their lines and win. Since Alexandria has a very large force attacking and we have limited resources, that clearly isn't the right way to go. In a defensive battle however, the attacking group needs to outnumber the defensive position by five to one. If we set up our defenses right, then we have a much better chance of winning."

Freya seemed impressed by my words. So much so that she didn't offer any resistance. "How sure are you about this?"

"I studied military theory and battle plans in college. I'm quite sure I'm right."

Actually, I used to watch the Military channel and reviewed the battle plans they went over in their history shows, but I wasn't about to say that.

"Then what do you propose we do?" Freya asked. Everything around me seemed to stop. Everyone looked at me, either questioning my ability, or wondering if I had the magic answer.

I looked around the city. From here, I had a good vantage point of everything around. I examined the city as best I could.

The Alexandrians would have to come into the city via the tunnel first. That was our first choke point, but they had more than enough soldiers to plow through us. We'd need something big if we were going to make a stand there. Then there was the problem of the Black Mages coming in. Even if they came in from the tunnel, they could use ranged magic attacks.

"What's in our armory?" I asked one of the more official looking Cleyrans on the crowd.

"We have many weapons," he said slowly. "Swords, javelins, bows, shields—"

"Bows?" I interrupted. "You have bows?"

"Yes."

"How many arrows?"

"Hundreds."

That took care of our range problem. If we set up a barrage of soldiers at the front of the city and forced the Alexandrians to cluster together, then they wouldn't have a chance against us.

Furthering my investigation, I turned around and saw inside the inn. The counter was still smashed in. I could only hope the innkeeper wasn't still pissed—

_Pillowwood…_ I remembered. _Expands and explodes when energized. Expands and explodes…_

My eyes widened at the possibility. If we could get enough of this stuff together, we could build a defense that Alexandria would never see coming.

"Ok, I've got a plan," I said finally. "We're going to need the bows and arrows from the armory handed out to each soldier, as well as swords and javelins to be handed out, as per each soldiers preference. We're also going to need pillowwood, and lots of it. And while we're at it, I need the schematics of the city. We'll need to map out defense lines and patrol routes,"

Some of the people in the crowd didn't seem to agree with what I was saying. Some seemed to follow but the rest simply glared with disbelief.

"Lady Freya," one of the soldiers began. "Who is this guy? Can we really believe him?"

Freya looked down at me and held her gaze. She seemed to stare through me and evaluated me briefly before turning back to the questioning soldier.

"When we were passing through the ruins of Burmecia, it was Trevor's plan that not only got us out alive, but got us away from General Beatrix. If it wasn't for him, there is no question in my mind that we would have died."

A whisper of amazement went over the crowd as they went over Freya's word. They seemed to believe her and were ready to go through with whatever I recommended.

"Thanks for that," I said to Freya on an aside.

"No problem," she said. "I trust you and I know you can do well here. Just please do what you can to keep everyone safe."

"You know I will," I assured her.

"Alright everyone, you heard him!" Freya belted over the noise of the crowd. "Get those supplies ready! We need to finish this as soon as possible!"

"Sounds like you know what you're doing," Zidane said as the crowd dispersed and began their preparations. "I guess we're going to let you take charge of our battle plans if this works out."

"Thanks," I said. "Good to know the leader agrees with me."

"Heh, I'm not the leader," Zidane said. "We don't really have a leader in our group."

"Not yet we don't," I joked with a grin.

As everyone went off, some to the armory, some to the trunk for more wood, I couldn't help a feeling of twinge of hope. Maybe we really could do it. Maybe we could live through this and keep everyone alive. Brahne wouldn't dare destroy the city while the crystal was still here, so as long as we kept that in check, we were safe.

The only problem was the ramifications this could have on the storyline. If it changed too much, then I wouldn't be able to predict what was going to happen. But as I looked around, seeing the hopeful faces, the mothers telling their children that they were going to be alright, the soldiers promising each other that they were going to make it through, I began to care less and less about maintaining the storyline's order.

To hell with the storyline anymore. These were real people, who were really going to die if I didn't do this. I had to stop fate.

I was going to stop Alexandria.

XXXXXXXX

I've been waiting for this part all summer. I have an extensive plan for the next chapter. It's a little complicated, but I'm sure I can write it simply enough. Still, it'll be fun seeing how well my plan comes out. Enough reviews will really help move it along faster though.


	6. Trevor's Battle Plan

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's note: More reviews means faster chapter turnouts. I don't lie now, do I? :D It might be a little difficult to do so for a while though since school just started up again. I'll try to keep it close, but studies have to come first, especially since it's my last year. That means the dreaded senior project. D: Still, I might be able to do some writing nights and weekends, so updates could come at anytime.

But for now, we see how well I can write a military style battle plan. XD Warning though, some of the scenes get kinda intense. o.o

Chapter 6- Trevor's Battle Plan.

XXXXXXXX

Seeing the sand storm collapse was one of the worst things that the citizens of Cleyra could have witnessed. However, above on the Red Rose, Alexandria was celebrating its good fortune before the battle. The soldiers chatted their luck as they strapped into their armor and donned their weapons.

Captain Delores and General Beatrix were looking over their soldiers together. The soldiers' jubilation didn't spread to the officers, unfortunately. Delores had always been a man of order, and Beatrix had always preferred discipline. If their soldiers acted like this, their only advantage in combat would be in numbers.

Sadly, considering the information they had on Cleyra, combined with Delores' reputation for master plans, as well as the Black Mages, it seemed they had all the advantages they needed. Both Delores and Beatrix knew that when it came down to it, their forces would focus properly.

"Preparations are complete, I assume?" Beatrix asked Delores.

"Once they all finish getting their armor on, yes," Delores answered. "I'll give them a stern lecture once we're on the ground."

"See that you do," Beatrix said. "I have no doubt that we'll take the crystal, but I'd like to avoid as many casualties as possible."

"Are those Alexandrian casualties, or casualties altogether?"

Beatrix gave Delores a side-glance for a moment before responding.

"We both know that this is not the holy war her Majesty pretends it is," Beatrix explained. "We're attacking these poor people without even giving them the chance to negotiate and surrender."

Delores nodded in understanding. "I agree," he said. "It's so unlike the queen to do these kinds of things."

"But we're sworn to follow her orders until her death."

Delores just sighed, running a hand over his face. "And until then, we're not allowed to show any mercy to the 'enemy'."

Beatrix turned and stood at attention, facing Delores. "You have your orders Captain," she said. "Follow them through."

"Yes Ma'am," Delores said, returning the stance and giving a salute.

"Dismissed."

Delores lowered his salute and turned to exit the room. He was to rally his troops and get them on the ground and through the trunk. He could only hope that it all went well.

XXXXXXXX

"What about the chain mail?" I asked.

"I can lower that to a thousand." Dan said.

"And the thunder gloves?"

"I can go as low as six hundred with those."

"Geez man, you're not giving me anything."

"Hey, I have a business to run!"

"And here I am trying to save all of you!"

Because Dan worked as a blacksmith in Burmecia as well as a soldier, he was good with armor. He had managed to bring some from Burmecia somehow and was selling it to anyone who could afford it. Problem was, I'd have to spend the rest of my money to afford it.

Still, the armor bonus I'd get from them would be worth it. My old armor was beginning to rust around the edges of the chest where the hole in my chest had burst open.

"Alright, fine," I said stubbornly. I handed over the money and Dan handed over the armor.

"Here," he added, handing me a new red t-shirt as well. "My wife worked as a tailor in Burmecia. The armor might be uncomfortable without it."

"Thanks Dan," I said, taking it graciously. I tried it on and found that it fit me perfectly. The chain mail went over it, fitting nicely as well. I tapped the armor a few times, listening to the rattle of the rings. With this, I felt all but impervious to sword cuts. I took the gauntlets and tried them on. They were a little tight at first, but after flexing my hand for a moment they fit just fine, covering all of my wrist and the back of my hands. The material was strong enough to stop any average sword swing, should I need it.

"Looks like you're suited up," Zidane said. He came up the path from the lower part of the city with a grin. He had gotten an armor upgrade as well, wearing a mythril vest instead of his old vest. It looked like the original, but it shined more.

"I'd hope so," I said, admiring my new yellow gauntlets. "Are the preparations going well?"

"The front stairway is destroyed and we've made a hole into the Antlion's room. They're making a ladder up to the second level of town now."

"What about the barricades?"

"They're in place."

"All three of them?"

"Yup."

"Awesome."

I walked down to the bottom of town to see how everything was progressing. Spacing here was critical since it determined how we were going to fare. One barricade was set just in front of the room to the Antlion's chambers. Since the stairway leading up to the city was now destroyed, this barricade seemed to block the only way up. Just to be safe though, there were barricades set up along the roads looking down at the tunnel into town. Any soldier positioned here would be able to rain down hell onto anyone trying to invade.

"I'm going to look around again," I told Zidane.

"I'll join you," he offered. "I want to see exactly what you're planning."

"Alright then."

We walked down to the bottom of town. All around us, people were clamoring about the plan, or their role. Some of the Burmecian soldiers were practicing their archery against an outstanding branch sprouting out from the ground in the middle of town.

"Freya and Vivi are still asleep, I assume?" I asked as we walked.

"Last time I checked," Zidane replied. "I don't even know how we're still up."

"I got a small nap earlier, but I think I'm going on adrenaline now."

"Yeah, me too," Zidane said. "Not the nap part, but the adrenaline."

"It's a damn good feeling, isn't it?" I joked.

"You want real adrenaline? Try being a thieving actor. You wouldn't believe the rush that the strict time constraints can give you."

As we reached the last level of town, we saw some Burmecians chopping away at the trunk with an axe. They had spent the better part of an hour chopping their way through to the Antlion's lair. Already, I could see the beast resting in its room. I was glad I didn't kill it. It was going to be useful.

"How's everything here?" I asked.

"Fine," one of the soldiers said. I could tell he resented me from his tone. "We'll be done here in a few minutes."

"Make sure a person can rush through the hole no problem," I reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," came the reply.

I decided not to bother them anymore and turned back down the path overlooking the tunnel.

"This is where I'm supposed to be, right?" Zidane asked as we walked.

"Yeah," I told him. "You and your squad will wait here and take out anything my squad can't reach from the first barricade."

"Are you sure you want to be down there?" the thief asked. "You're right on the front lines with a bunch of men who don't look like their very good at aiming."

I looked back at the Burmecians practicing their archery on the branch. Only about half their shots were hitting their marks.

"I'll be fine," I told him. "Just remember to attack only when I say and aim for any Black Mages you see first."

Zidane's team wouldn't need to worry about aiming as much as mine. They were only a few feet away from the tunnel, so any decently trained soldier would be able to hit them. And since they were out of the way, none of the Alexandrians would be able to spot them until it was too late.

"I just worry about Vivi," Zidane said. "Do you really think he can do his part? I mean, if he's off by a second—"

"Vivi will be fine," I said. "We just need to worry about me getting all the men out of the lower road before he can cast anything."

"Are you sure you'll be fine down there? I mean, you could just have the troops gather down there and keep them covered from up here."

"I could, but then I wouldn't be able to judge the situation as accurately," I explained. "I need to see how many of them are coming up the tree. We might get a lot, or we might get only a handful before the main force comes from above."

Zidane looked up as I talked. It was still dark out, but a little light was beginning to creep over the mountain range off in the distance. There was a lot of exposed tree from the top, so the enemy could land anywhere in town. It wasn't a comforting thought.

"You're sure we can do this though?" Zidane asked quietly. "We barely have enough fighters as it is."

"Hey, you're supposed to be the cocky, confident guy, remember?"

"Yeah, confident. Not short sighted."

"Don't worry," I told him. "The key to running a good battle is to do things the enemy would never see coming. You know the plan. How can they see half of this beforehand?"

Zidane let out an exasperated sigh. "I dunno. I guess you're right."

I gave him a slap on the back of the shoulder. "Just be your usual self," I told him. "You'll still have a squad to lead."

"I'm no leader," Zidane reminded me.

"Then you haven't been paying attention."

"There you go again with this 'leader' stuff."

I didn't have a chance to reply to Zidane. A Burmecian ran up to us, out of breath. "S-sir!" he panted for a second. "I have a report!"

"Go ahead," I told him. Since Freya and the king were both resting up for the battle, I was put in charge of the preparations and ground forces on the lower levels during the fight.

"The pathway from the Antlion's chamber is complete and the ladder is in place," he said quickly.

"Good,"

"Corporal Dan is ready at the inn with his squad. They're just resting for now."

"Very good," I said again. "Where's Freya?"

"Lady Freya is awake and assembling her team right now. She'll be waiting in front of the inn with Corporal Dan."

"And Vivi?" I asked.

"He's still sleeping. Lady Freya said to let him sleep until the battle came."

Probably a smart move. Otherwise, Vivi wouldn't be as focused as I needed him.

"What about the rest of the troops?"

"Many are resting or holding their position at the inn," the soldier explained. His expression seemed to cry out "Can I go now?", so I decided not to disappoint him. I had the information I needed.

"Alright, thanks for that," I said. "Go rest up and send the first and second squads down here with all their equipment. They'll be resting here for now."

"Understood," the Burmecian said before backing up and running back up the path.

"And you say I should be the leader," Zidane said. "Look at how you handled that. You'd make a good leader."

"No, I wouldn't," I said with a shake of the head. "I'm just a strategist. These people are only following me because they trust Freya, and Freya trusts me. A truly great leader doesn't just lead, he inspires. These people resent me and are only following my orders because Freya said they should. Otherwise, they might be calling me sir."

"And you think I'd make a better leader?" he asked.

"I know you would."

As we talked, the sound of clanging armor marched towards us. The first and second squads, the ones I assigned to myself and Zidane respectively, made their way towards us, then sat down along the upper barricades without a word. Each soldier was armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, and their choice between a sword or a spear. In all, there were only twenty soldiers, ten for each squad. They were all tired from how little sleep they had gotten, but I tried to make sure it was more than three hours for each. They'd be fine with that.

"How's everyone doing?" I asked, trying to break the ice. I only got a few garbled replies from the tired soldiers.

"Uhh…alright then," I said. "Everyone rest up and listen for the alarm. Get into position when it goes off."

No one really replied this time. They only seemed to nod to get me to shut up. I looked over to Zidane and mouthed 'I told you so'.

One of the soldiers came down the path slower than the others, awkwardly carrying three sets of bows and quivers. He set the bows down, then handed the quivers to Zidane and myself.

"Special delivery," he uttered sarcastically. Zidane and I took them. I strapped my quiver over my right shoulder while Zidane slipped his on his hip. We picked up our bows and strung them, flexing the wood.

"So you can use one of these?" he asked.

"Kinda," I admitted. "I'm not very good, but the trick is to have everyone fire at the same time. If you do it right, you get a wall of arrows heading for your enemies."

It was the same technique used in the Civil War. Since the guns at the time were so inaccurate, soldiers were ordered to fire all at the same time to make it more likely that the other soldiers would be shot.

"Cool," Zidane said. He grabbed an arrow and strung it, pulling back and testing the bow. "This doesn't seem too hard," he said. With that, he let go of the arrow and it flew through the air, sinking into the wood on the lower path, right above the tunnel. Amazingly, it hit a single leaf hanging from a vine high above the tunnel.

"Woah!" I let out. "Nice shot dude!"

"Uh…actually, I was aiming for the tunnel," he said.

"…Oh."

The awkward moment died in a second though when an alarm sounded from the cathedral at the top of the city. Everyone jumped up and stood at attention, assessing the situation. As it echoed throughout town, a runner came down from the city.

"The Red Rose has been spotted landing outside the tree!" he yelled. "It dropped several squads at the base. Alexandria's attack is immanent!"

I nodded, thankful for the information. "Alright, everyone in position!" I yelled over the alarm. "First squad with me at the first barricade! Second squad, stay with Zidane and stay hidden until Alexandria's first wave has passed. Let them come to us before you attack!"

"Alright, let's go guys!" Zidane yelled, rallying his troops. They all gathered and knelt down behind the barricades, bows and arrows ready. The first squad gathered around me, waiting for me to head down ahead of them.

"Wait for me!" came a small voice running down the pathway to town. I looked up and saw Vivi running towards Zidane's position. He was covering his ears to muffle the alarm, squishing his hat down in the process.

"Vivi!" I yelled as he made it down. He looked over and I walked to him to make talking easier. "You remember what to do?"

Vivi looked at me, then to the lower barricade, then back to me.

"Y-yeah, I think so," he said.

"Good," I told him. "Remember to wait for my signal, and preserve your magic. Alexandria doesn't know we have a mage. I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."

"Alright," he said, before walking to the barricade and crouching down, hands still glued to his ears.

Everything was in place here. Zidane, Vivi and the second squad would remember their roles. I turned back and headed to the Antlion's chamber with the first squad. I signaled for them to follow quietly as I passed them and they seemed to understand.

The hole cut into the chamber had been done rather well, considering that it was rushed. It was a rough crawlspace just big enough to move through, but the broken bark bit at our hands and knees as we moved. It lasted only a few feet, but it felt like it was covered in gravel. Finally leaving it was a welcomed feeling, even though there was a giant sleeping monster on the other side of the crawlspace.

The first squad soon followed. We all walked through the room as quietly as we could. If the Antlion woke up now, our plan would be ruined and we'd be cut off from the others. Fortunately, everyone was able to keep themselves under control and didn't make a sound. We made our way to the first barricade outside of the Antlion's chamber without incident and held ourselves low. The large barricade was mostly a large rectangular block of wood, but there were a few spikes facing the tunnel to stop any Alexandrians from climbing over it easily.

The alarm died down when we got there. Everyone was in position. I could only hope that Freya and Dan kept their squads under control and not rush towards us. That would cripple our defense higher in the city.

"So we just shoot them when they get here?" one of the soldiers asked.

"All at the same time," I told him. "I take it that none of us are highly experienced archers, so if we fire all at once, then the Alexandrians will have nowhere to go and will get hit."

"So what do we do until then?" asked another soldier. "Wait?"

"Exactly," I said solemnly. "They'll come to us."

XXXXXXXX

The legendary defenses of Cleyra were nothing like they had heard it was. Perhaps the inside of the trunk itself never had any of its own defenses. Perhaps the few monsters they ran into were trumped-up excuses of defenses. Whatever the case, Captain Delores was not impressed as he marched his troops upward without a casualty in sight.

Delores carried himself proudly, despite the sandy conditions. He had no idea how long he would have sand in his hair and clothes, but he would be satisfied if her majesty never ordered him to return here again.

The troops Beatrix had assigned under his command would be more than enough. Fifty of Alexandria's finest soldiers would be more than enough to take this rundown city, but the queen had insisted that he take a squad of fifteen Black Mages along just in case. Delores knew that the queen was simply playing with her new "toys", but he didn't offer any complaints. His loyalties were to the queen, Alexandria and nothing else.

"Sir," one of the soldiers under his command said as they entered the next room. "We believe that we're almost near the top of the tree. This room would be a perfect place to hold out in as we send soldiers out to draw out the enemy."

Delores looked around. There had been sand pits here once before, but stopping the sandstorm outside had somehow stopped these pits from flowing as well. They were safe to stand in and would make a fine place to hold back and ambush any Burmecian or Cleyran resistance.

"Very well," Delores decided. "Sergeant Calwell," he called. "We'll wait here. Take your soldiers and scout ahead. See if you can pull out some of their fighters."

"Yes sir!" Calwell saluted. She gathered three of her troops and they marched into the next room. Delores watched with piqued interest, seeing how his plan unfolded.

His plans never failed.

XXXXXXXX

"When are they coming?" another soldier asked for the umpteenth time. The sun had come up in the time we had been waiting and cast light ever the whole of the city, but it didn't make the place seem any brighter.

"I don't know," I said for the umpteenth time. "Just stay down and wait for them. You'll be safer this way."

My patience was wearing thin. Even though these guys were supposed to be highly trained soldiers, they weren't acting like it. Our hiding spot from behind the first barricade in front of the tunnel would be compromised if they kept chattering like this.

It didn't take long for something to happen. A minute later, we heard grunting from people climbing the ladder just outside the tunnel. Stealthy, they were not.

"Get ready," I whispered to my squad. I got a few nods as everyone held themselves behind the barricade.

Moments later, four Alexandrian women walked into town. They looked surprised to be greeted with silence, but crept forward anyway.

"Do we kill them now?" asked a soldier by my side.

"No," I told him. "Wait 'til they're closer."

The Alexandrians all walked through the tunnel cautiously. One seemed to stick out though. The soldier leading the others in looked around more angrily then the rest.

"Ma'am," one of the soldiers asked the angry soldier. "Where are they? Shouldn't they be here?"

"Stop whining," the angry one barked. "Those rats are around here somewhere. We might have to burn the city to find them though. It'll be just like Burmecia; they won't do a thing to stop us!"

She was clearly speaking so that any nearby Burmecian could hear her. Her plan to piss off any Burmecians around definitely worked. I held my breath nervously as the troops in my squad trembled in rage. If they jumped up now, the Alexandrians wouldn't be close enough to shoot at. I had to make them hold out for just a few more seconds…

"Alright, we might as well start wrecking the place," the soldier in charge said. "Ladies, at your ready, cast Blizzara wherever you want!"

_Crap! If that hits the pillowwood…_

"Hey!" I said, jumping to my feet. My squad just looked up at me like I was insane, which I probably was.

"What? A human?" the angry soldier said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could say the same to the four of you," I said, relaying the number of troops to the two nearby squads. "I'll give you a choice: leave here or die."

I drew my short swords and leaned against the barricade, offering a simple challenge to the soldiers. If they were as prideful as they made themselves out to be, then they wouldn't dare turn down a target as easy as me.

"Well, well, I am impressed," the lead Alexandrian said. "Not many people are brave enough to stand against Alexandria." She drew her sword as well, accepting the challenge. "Of course, the history books will say you pleaded for your life."

With the wave of her hand, the Alexandria squad moved forward in a line, bearing down on me.

"Will they?" I smirked somewhat evilly. "First squad, UP!"

The Alexandrians stopped and were frozen in horror for a moment as ten Burmecian soldiers they never saw stood before them, faces twisted in gallant fury.

"Notch arrows!"

"W-w-wait a minute!"

"Open fire!"

The arrows rained forth like missiles, each one hitting its target. The enemy soldiers only had seconds to react before they were all riddled with the bolts of wood. Since they were close enough, aiming wasn't a problem. They all took shots to the chest, save for one who even took a shot in the neck. They all fell to the ground, dead or dying.

As they lie there, bleeding, the one soldier who was in charge turned away and started crawling back to the tunnel. She was shot once in the stomach and once in the chest. Armor was pointless against longbows at close range.

"Please…please don't kill me…" she begged. "I'm a sergeant. You can use me to negotiate Alexandria's withdrawal."

"Boy, you're just full of crap, aren't you?" I said as I jumped over the barricade. "Full withdrawal for a single sergeant? You must be the queen's best friend to pull that off."

"I-I can give you information!" the sergeant begged again. "Just don't kill me!"

"Just stop talking," I said, disgusted with her cowardice. "We're not going to kill you. Stop moving so that we can capture you properly."

The sergeant didn't reply. She just turned over so that the arrow wounds were sticking up. Blood was still seeping out of her armor and collected beneath her.

Unfortunately, that's when the wind began to blow. It shook the leaves in the tree above hard enough to cause some of them to come loose. It was also strong enough to knock down Zidane's arrow from before.

The arrow came loose of the wall and righted itself up with the pointy end down. It picked up enough speed to pierce through the sergeant's armor, right through her chest and into her heart. She coughed for a moment before spasming pathetically and dying only after a few moments.

"Well…shit," I muttered.

I honestly wanted to keep her alive. As much as I hated the Alexandrians for what they were doing, I wasn't about to kill anyone I could avoid.

The Burmecians didn't seem to have the same idea though. They cheered and laughed at the situation. Some sent out jeers saying she earned it, others just laughed at the irony. I could understand what they were feeling, but it was causing disorder that we couldn't afford.

"Enough!" I yelled, cutting off the celebratory feeling. "We still have who knows how many more of these bastards to fight off. Stop acting like children and get back in order."

Amazingly, they all did as I said, with only minimal glaring. I ignored it for the next part of the plan. "I need three volunteers," I said. "One for each of these bodies."

I only got several confused looks in return. Perhaps explaining the plan in full detail when they were all half asleep last night wasn't the best of moves.

"Take their armor off and throw it into the corner over here," I said, doing just that. I pulled the arrows out of the sergeant before tearing the straps off of her armor and chucking it aside, revealing her armor padding and street clothes. I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her along the path and into the tunnel.

"You, you and you, come help me with this," I said, selecting three strong looking fighters from behind the barricade. They all glanced at each other, unsure what to do before climbing over the wooden block and doing the same thing to the other three bodies.

"What are we doing with these bastards?" one of them, a private named Sal asked as he struggled with the armor straps.

"There's no way this was the only force Alexandria sent up the tree," I explained. "There has to be a lieutenant or a captain down there giving commands."

"Yeah, so?"

I merely glanced up calmly as I went on. People tended to fear what they couldn't understand. That feeling was always amplified on the battlefield. With that in mind, what would the remaining forces think when they saw Chi in action, a type of magic never before seen on Gaia?

"Alexandria's going to want their soldiers back."

XXXXXXXX

Five minutes was more than enough time for his team to go in. Hell, two minutes would have been enough. Delores feared that his troops were found early and weren't able to get out in time. He knew this might happen though, but it meant that Burmecia would be on alert and more likely to chase after the slightest hint of an Alexandrian. They would be easier to bait now.

"Sergeant Dorris," he called. A strong young woman quickly came to his side and saluted.

"Sir!" Dorris replied.

"Take your troops and find Sergeant Calwell's group. They're most likely injured or dead at this point, so be on your guard. If you see any Burmecian or Cleyran, run back to us as quickly as you can."

"Yes sir!" Dorris saluted again. Instantly, Dorris' troops came to her side and the four of them left into the next room to assault the town.

Delores worried about his troops. Normally, he was concerned with their safety, as any good commander would be, but this time felt different. If Cleyra was fighting defensively, then he didn't have enough troops to take them down. But that wasn't possible. For them to set up such a defense in time would mean having prior knowledge about the attack, or Alexandria's goal. No one in Cleyra could know what that was, right?

"Sir!" Dorris yelled, running back around the corner with all her troops behind her. "You should come see this! It's the Burmecians! They have Calwell!"

"What?"

"Alexandria!" came a battle cry from the next room. Delores snapped his head up as the enemy began shouting. "We know you're there! Your sergeant told us! Come on out if you want her back!"

Delores swore inwardly. He should have sent in Dorris to attack first. Calwell was always a little shortsighted. It was a mistake on his part; one that wouldn't happen again. Still, he had this matter to attend to.

"Very well!" Delores called back to the enemy voice. "We're all coming out!"

Before anyone moved, Delores silently signaled for only ten of his soldiers to come out. He could still salvage an advantage if the Burmecians didn't know what his numbers were.

The ten soldiers formed into two rows of five behind Delores. He marched them out of the room and around the corner. The next room revealed a ladder that reached up to a platform which led into town. And on top of that platform were four enemy troops, one for each member of Calwell's team.

The captured Alexandrians were all bound and gagged. The bottom of their shirts had been torn off and used to tie off their mouths and eyes so there was no way they could communicate. Judging by the wounds on their bodies, they had suffered from a barrage of arrows. Painful, but not necessarily deadly. Even though Delores couldn't see it, he was sure their hands were bound behind their backs as well. Whoever was leading this was no amateur.

"So, it seems you've managed to stop our attack," Delores said calmly. "Good for you."

"Like this stops anything," said the soldier holding Calwell. Delores couldn't see his face, but each of the Burmecians were hiding behind his troops, using them as shields. "We know this isn't your main attack force, and I'm willing to bet it's not your full force here."

"Very well, you caught me," Delores said. He had anticipated this as well. He turned back to the previous room and signaled for only the Black Mages to enter the next room. Obediently, they all filled out and came into place behind him and his soldiers already out in the room.

"So, are we going to negotiate the release of my soldiers?" Delores asked calmly. He needed this guy to talk if he was going to find a way to trap him. No one stopped William Delores.

"Hardly," the enemy commander said. "This one's just a sergeant. Not worth much at a negotiating table."

"Then what do you want?" Delores asked.

"For your troops to pay attention!" came the reply. "We can't stop Alexandria from attack us, but you and your troops can leave here alive."

Delores let out a confident chuckle. "I see where your conviction may come from. Protecting your homeland and allies is a very admirable task, but you don't have the power to stop us."

"It's not a matter of power," the commander said. "It's about ability. Your soldiers fell almost as soon as they came into town."

"Perhaps, but ten troops against four? Doesn't exactly seem fair, now does it?"

The commander shook. "How did you know that?"

Delores grinned. He never lost, no matter the situation. "Well first off," he began. "There are ten arrow wounds among the four of them. I doubt you could fire that many arrows to their fronts before they had a chance to turn away. Second, you just told me with your reaction."

The commander shook with anger. He hadn't anticipated his enemy to trick him so easily. But he calmed down quickly for his next bout of cruelty.

"Fine," he said. "I hate to do this, but I'm given no choice. Do it Sal."

The commander's message was instantly received that the Burmecian closest to the tunnel drew his sword out of its sheathe and drove it through the soldier he was holding. The blade came out her chest, through her heart, covered in blood. Delores was horrified at seeing his soldiers treated in such a way, but maintained as much composure as he could. Even though the soldiers were all already dead, the Alexandrians below them didn't know that. To them, this was just an execution rally.

The Burmecian then pulled his sword out, let the Alexandrian drop to the floor below, then ran back into the city.

"This is just what'll happen to you and all your troops if you press on," the commander said. "That includes the ones you had around the corner there."

"What?" Delores said, shocked at first, but quickly realized his mistake and calmed down to avoid giving the enemy any more hints.

"I thought so," the commander said. "How many of you are there? Fifty? A hundred?"

"I don't know who you are Burmecian, but you will all regret this."

"Burmecian?" the commander said. "You think the Burmecians and the Cleyrans are the only ones resisting you?" To prove his point, he brought his hand out, covered only in a yellow gauntlet. It was clearly a human's arm. "You don't know what forces you're working with or against," he said ominously. "Get out of here now before your idiot queen blows us all up, or before I get pissed."

The commander then turned to the remaining Burmecians by his sides and called them by name. "Gre, Ane. We're outta here!"

The Burmecians nodded in understanding and took their swords out, running them through their prisoners as well. The other Alexandrians fell before the remaining forces, leaving the commander alone on the platform. Slowly, he drew out a short sword, but didn't drive it through Calwell's chest. Instead, he cut into her back onto a few inches and settled it in place.

The commander took a deep, almost shaking breath before he finished the job.

"…Pulse."

Then, to Delores' amazement and horror, a purple ring shot through Calwell's body. It seemed to hang in the air for a moment before her front half fell forward to the floor below, exposing her charred innards. Then, those too fell forward, leaving only the shell of her skin.

The Alexandrian soldiers who were watching were stunned for only a moment. Shouts and jeers of protest resounded almost instantly as the enemy commander dropped what was left of Sergeant Calwell's body to the ground.

The commander wasn't Burmecian, just as he had said. He glanced angrily at the crowd before him as he turned back and ran into the city like the others. Truly, this fighter wasn't like anything he had seen before and his powers were never before documented. He might not have even been human at all.

But what stunned Delores wasn't the ability he had never seen before.

This fighter was his son.

"…Trevor?"

XXXXXXXX

I could only keep my composure for so long. As soon as I was out of sight of any of the Alexandrians, I let myself go and threw up all over the ground inside the tunnel.

"Oh god…I can't believe I did that…" I muttered.

"This is no time to be barfing!" one of the Burmecians came up to me and said. I recognized him as Ane. "We need to get out of here!"

Ane grabbed my arm and pulled me up so fast that I thought he was going to pull my hand out of joint. Soon enough, I carried myself and ran with him back to the barricade. Ane climbed over first, then I took my turn, making sure not to scratch myself on the outward spikes. Sal and Gre were already talking about how successful our mission had been.

"You should have seen them!" Sal said. "They're going to be so pissed that they're not even going to think straight! They'll just charge in blindly and our only hard part will be choosing who to shoot first!"

"Hah! You should have seen them after this guy used that freaky magic of his!" Gre added. "They nearly lost it right there!"

"We were wrong about you!" Ane said, giving me a slap on the back. "This really is a good plan!"

"Uh…thanks," I said, a little unsure about myself. Even though I had only done that to a dead body, my conscience didn't sit right with me. I tried telling myself that it was war, and that I had to do whatever I could to keep these people alive, but it still didn't sit well with me.

The Alexandrians didn't seem to like what we had done. They were gathering outside of the tunnel, probably trying to get everyone up the ladder so that they could all come in one strong march. They must have been pissed off too since they were making so much noise in the process.

"Here they come!" Sal said suddenly.

The Alexandrians made no attempt in subtlety. They came crashing through the tunnel, armor glinting in the morning sun and making more noise than most New York construction crews. We, of course, tried to get them to quiet down in the best way possible.

"Open fire!"

Eleven arrows flew through air, screaming towards the front row of enemies. The small tunnel only let them come in two at a time, so our arrows didn't hit too many of them at once. Still, what we lacked in numbers, we made up for in position.

"Second squad, ready!" I belted out.

Instantly, Zidane's group stood over their barricade and took aim. As the first squad was making their second round, Zidane and his troops were firing to the enemy's rear. Alexandrians fell quickly and began tripping over one another. With each volley we fired, at least two more Alexandrians fell. All was going just perfectly until…

"This is great!" Sal yelled over the battle. "These idiots just keep coming head on and they don't have a chance!"

"Stay focused!" I yelled back. "We're still not done!"

"What are you talking about?" Sal yelled back. "We're doing just—"

He never finished the sentence. At that moment, a fireball overtook him and Sal was engulfed in flames. He screamed in horror and pain for a moment before collapsing, dead.

"Shit!" Gre shouted. "The bastards got Sal!"

"Everyone, fall back!" I yelled. "They have Black Mages! Second squad, increase fire!"

As the first squad lead a fighting retreat, running back only to fire another round at the Alexandrians every few feet, the fire from the second squad intensified. They took down as many Alexandrians as they could, aiming sporadically. Two more fireballs came in, claiming another two Burmecians, but we had no time to stop and mourn them. With almost everyone else gone, only Gre, Ane and myself were left.

"You bastards! YOU BASTARDS!" Gre continued to yell.

"Gre, get back!" Ane screamed. "We need to get out of here! You know what comes next!"

"Gre, fall back!" I said intensely, taking another shot. "We are leaving!"

Gre just kept on firing into the crowd. He probably would have jumped right into them, sword swinging everywhere, if Ane and I hadn't grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. Gre protested for only a quick second before he came to his senses and ran into the Antlion's chamber with the rest of us.

By now, the rest of the first squad had cleared the chamber and the first Alexandrians were climbing over the barricade. Heavy fire came form above, but the Alexandrians were in such a rage at what I had done that they just raised their shields to block and kept pressing forward. I fired once to block them off and buy Gre and Ane some time, but it just deflected off the nearest Alexandrian's shield.

"Clever girl," I muttered.

"Trevor!" came Ane's voice. I turned and saw that Ane and Gre were climbing the ladder into the next room to meet the second squad. That meant I was the only one left and I had to start the next phase of the plan.

"Time to wake up big guy," I said. I ran to the ladder and climbed the first few rungs just as the first Alexandrians entered the room. They saw me and nearly flew into another rage, but then they saw the giant Antlion sleeping just a few feet away. They turned back to me with uneasy eyes.

"Bye bye," I said, and fired the shot.

The arrow hit the Antlion square on center of its back, where it was still sore from our encounter the other day. Not enough to do much damage, but more than enough to hurt it and really piss it off. I climbed the rest of the ladder and pulled it up behind me before it could focus its anger on me, leaving the Alexandrians to their doom.

Coming out of the carved tunnel, the screams of the enemy soldiers echoed throughout the city. I jogged up to all the others and looked down on the chaos tumbling along the road. Most of the Alexandrians didn't know what was going on in the next room, so they crowded around the exit, blocking the only retreat for the ones trapped in there.

"Nice plan," one of the Burmecians said. "Now the monster will do all the work for us."

"No he won't," I said. "His role's almost done."

"What? If he's not going to take them out, then why are we using him in the first place?"

"For this," I said. I knelt down to Vivi and put a hand on his shoulder. "This is it Vivi. If you can do this, then we're almost done with these guys."

"A-alright," he said, only a little nervous. "I'll try."

Vivi stood up, looking over the carnage below and focused his magic. Within seconds, he had enough and unleashed his magic below, aiming for the pillowwood barricade.

"Thundara!"

A huge bolt of lightning came down on top of the barricade. The pillowwood absorbed the energy at first, then, as we had practiced it earlier, overloaded and sent it back out. The wood exploded and sent deadly splinters in every direction. Because the Alexandrians hadn't been moving, they were all perfect targets. Those who weren't blown away completely had their internal organs turned to pincushions.

As the dust settled, all that was left was armor, a crater, and a lot of blood.

The Burmecians were ecstatic.

"Good job Vivi!" I said, smooshing his hat down proudly. He just grinned and fixed his hat.

With the path clear, the few Alexandrians who didn't succumb to the Antlion's fury ran out of the room, just as the Black Mages were coming in. They bumped into each other, causing another tangled mess.

"Next part guys!" I called out. "Push the barricades out!"

Zidane and the second squad then pressed themselves against the barricades they had been using and pushed. The planks of extra wood fell free and landed on top of the Alexandrians and Black Mages. I turned to Vivi once more who released his magic down below.

"Thundara!"

Another bolt crashed down and sank into the pillowwood. A massive explosion, like a messy firework, roared through the city, sending wood and smoke everywhere in the pathway below.

"Alright, we're done here guys!" I said. "Damn good job. Now let's get back to the inn and regroup for the main force!"

The first squad, who now respected me, saluted enthusiastically and with a loud "Yes sir". The second squad just saluted. Zidane and Vivi nodded.

The squads formed two ranks and ran up the road to town. Things were going well so far. I could only hope they continued like this.

XXXXXXXX

"Trevor…? Was that really you…?"

Delores couldn't believe his eyes. Even as the rest of the Alexandrians rushed past him to get to the murderous bastard who sliced their sergeant in half, the captain simply collapsed under the pressure. He never thought, not for one second, that his missing son would be here of all places. What the hell had driven him to this?

Delores tried to get his thoughts back in order, but they only came as a jumbled mess. Images of his son and the things he must have seen getting here, how close to death he could have come and how many times; they all went through Delores' mind.

"You don't know…what you're working with or against…" he remembered Trevor saying. "With…or against…"

True, he didn't know what Trevor was doing here, but he was working with soldiers who he knew and trained, Black Mages, who were harmless to him as they were… what else was there? Perhaps the queen would—

The queen!

Delores' eyes shot open as he remembered the conversation he had had with Beatrix the other day! If it was true, if the queen had extracted eidolons from Princess Garnet, then everyone in Cleyra was in big, big trouble. The things he had heard of those mythic beasts were horrible. One would be more than enough to destroy the entire tree.

Finally, Captain William Delores knew what he had to do. Trevor had to be suffering from amnesia, or some kind of delusion. Why else wouldn't he have recognized his own father? Beatrix was here to get the crystal. Once that was hers, there was no reason for Alexandria to stay. Most importantly was the queen. She had eidolons now and given the way she had been toying with the Black Mages, she was prone to using it. When she did, everyone in Cleyra was going to die.

Including Trevor.

He couldn't let that happen. Important as his duty to queen and country was, his duty as a father was more important.

As the last Black Mage began climbing the rope ladder to town, Delores jumped up and grabbed its arm, pulling it back.

"You!" he shouted. "I order you to warp us back to the Red Rose! Now!"

The Black Mage silently nodded. It just raised its arms above its head and concentrated its magic, quickly forming a multicolored ball of energy. The sphere absorbed the mage instantly, then quickly absorbed Delores as well. It shot off out the open wall of the room and towards the sky, where the Red Rose hovered above.

"Just hang on Trevor…"

XXXXXXXX

When we got to the inn, Freya and Dan's squads were simply milling about, nervously waiting for our return. They nearly rushed us when they saw the two squads walking up to meet them.

"How was it?" asked several of the Burmecians as we approached. "Did you get all of them? Are they gone?"

"The first attack wave is gone!" I announced for everyone to hear. "If we can manage to follow the plan and make it to the cathedral, we should be able to outlast them."

There was a roar of triumph from the third and fourth squads. They rambled and cheered so loud you'd have though we had already won the war.

"What about casualties?" Freya asked solemnly. The Burmecians' cheering slowly silenced so they could hear.

I looked at everyone's happy faces. Surely, as well as my plan had been working we wouldn't have any. That's what I read from their expressions anyway.

"We, uh…" I began, the words lost to me.

"We had four fatalities," Zidane answered for me. "Three from the first squad and one from the second. Black Mages got them."

The mood immediately turned sour. The Black Mages were the one thing in Alexandria's army that we couldn't match head on. If it weren't for them, this would just be a straight up sword and spear kind of fight.

"Right then," I said. "The main attack force will be coming any time now. The first and third squads will head to the left of the inn across the rope bridge. Second and fourth squads will head up the stairs to the right. First and second squads will stick to bows and arrows to take out any Black Mages they see at a distance. Third and fourth squads will stick to close quarters combat. We'll make a stand in front of the cathedral and stop Alexandria there, ok?"

"Are you sure its wise to fight outside the cathedral?" one soldier asked. "Our families and all the people who aren't fighting are hiding in there."

"Don't worry," I said. "The Alexandrian soldiers can't get passed us as they are and the Black Mages won't aim at the building. If they were going to, they would have taken out the barricade from our first run in down below. Now, is everyone ready?"

They all saluted. They understood the plan. I had only forty warriors to fight with and use in my strategy. Compared to the number the Red Rose could carry, we didn't have much of a chance. It was almost enough to make a guy just drop everything and run away while we still had a chance at getting out of the city.

"Vivi," I said in one final note. "Remember that we might need to use the splinter shot when we get centered outside of the cathedral."

"But we haven't practiced it!" Vivi pointed out. "What if I miss?"

"You won't miss," I told him. "Just remember how well you did in blowing up the barricades."

"Are you sure I can do it?"

"I don't think you could mess up if you tried."

"…Alright," the little mage said with a nod. "I'll do what I can."

I looked up and addressed the rest of the troops. "How are you guys doing? Everyone ok?"

The third and fourth squads just nodded, or waved me off. They looked more bored or tired than anything else. The second squad was a little tired, but except for a few soldiers who opted to sit down and rest, I mostly got some thumbs up. The first squad, however, wasn't doing so well.

Losing the three that we did in the first squad weighed heavily on them. They didn't respond to my question and took the moment to mourn our losses.

"Dammit, those bastards," Gre said, gripping his bow tightly and using it as a support. "Why did Sal have to die?"

"Don't beat yourself up man," I told him.

"Hey, what's that?" a Burmecian soldier cried out.

I craned my neck up and saw a multicolored orb swirling down towards us. It seemed to take its time descending, like it was mocking us, but maybe the fresh adrenaline in my veins made time seem to slow down.

"INCOMING!"

Several more orbs fell right behind the first one. They landed on the path just down the road from the inn. As the orbs faded, a new class of Black Mage appeared, along with an Alexandrian soldier. The new Black Mage was a type B model. They had stronger magic, as well as a new type of cloak, which probably enhanced their magic further.

"Kill!" the Black Mage yelled as the other orbs faded.

"KILL!" came the cries of the other Black Mages as they phased into existence.

"Everyone, get ready!" I yelled. Within seconds, the first and second squads rushed the edge of the path, bows armed and aimed.

"Fire!"

Both squads let their arrows fly, but as they did, the type B's released their magic as well. Several fireballs ripped through the front line we had assembled, taking out several of the archers. Although our arrows managed to take out half of their initial landing force, we couldn't withstand another attack like that. We had to retreat.

"Everyone fall back!" I ordered. "Zidane and Freya, your squads, go up the stairs! Dan, your squad's with mine! Across the bridge, now!"

No one had to be told twice. As the intruders approached from behind us, more orbs fell from the sky, landing all over town. I knew it was going to be bad, but I hoped that it wouldn't be this bad. If the Black Mages came in too fast, then we wouldn't be able to stop them, and the plan would fall apart. They'd break into the cathedral, steal the crystal and everyone would die.

Zidane and Freya lead the second and fourth squads up the stairs to the right. There was pillowwood lined up along the sides so Vivi could blast them when the time came. Dan led the third and first squads across the bridge while I took the rear, making sure none of the Black Mages came too close behind us.

I quickly lost sight of Zidane and Freya's groups when I got onto the bridge, but I couldn't worry about them now. They'd be fine on their own. I had to worry about my men and myself. Another orb landed and faded behind me on the far end of the bridge. I took a moment to load and aim before sending another shot off into the heart of the Black Mage that appeared there. I pulled my bow back and finished making my way across the bridge.

On the other side, Dan was already fighting off a force approaching from a pathway to the south. Swords clashed and spears gouged; cries could be heard from both sides. We were lucky that Dan's troops were still fresh. Otherwise, we probably would have been overwhelmed.

"Hey, Trevor, is that everyone?" Dan cried from the midst of battle.

"All from our side!" I shouted back. I knew what he was implying and I was already on it. Now that our forces were across the rope bridge, there was no reason to keep it around.

As part of the preparation, we had cut the bottom ropes supporting the bridge. It was wobbly, but it stayed up just as well as it would normally. The handrails would have to go though. I took out a short sword and began fraying the two remaining ropes ever so slightly. Too little of a fray and the bridge wouldn't drop when the Alexandrians got on it. Too much and the bridge would drop prematurely.

I finished when I was about half way through all the fibers. That would be good enough for a few Alexandrians to walk across, but it they came on in one big group, the weight would destroy the ropes, sending them tumbling down the side of the hundred-story tree.

"We're done here!" I announced. "Everyone back up to the cathedral!"

"Fall back!" Dan repeated. "We're leaving! Fall back!" All the troops followed his order and ran up the only remaining pathway to the cathedral above.

"We're almost done," I heard Gre saying. "Just a little longer."

"At least you don't have to worry about a wife and kids," Ane told him. "If this doesn't work, everything's screwed!"

"Chat later!" I chided. "Get up the hill for now!"

"Yes commander," they both said. The remnants of the first squad was doing what they could to help the third squad move away from combat, but that meant turning their focus away from the other side of the bridge. And that was a big advantage for the Black Mages situated there.

"Kill!" one of them yelled. He sent a fireball our way, too quickly to dodge.

"Look out!" I yelled, to no avail. The fireball hit Ane right on the arm and quickly cooked the flesh along his left side. He screamed so loudly it made the floor shake.

"No!" Gre and I yelled at the same time. We both drew our arrows and shot them straight into the offending mage. One shot went deep into its lung and the other sank into its heart, but which shot was mine I couldn't tell. With the mage down, I strapped my bow to my back and knelt down to help Ane.

"Ane! Are you alright?" I asked. It was a stupid question, I know, but I still felt obliged to ask it.

"My arm…" he said weakly. "I can't feel it."

"Well at least you're not dead," Gre comforted quickly. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Gre and I both grabbed Ane's shoulders and pulled him up the stairs as fast as we could, which wasn't very fast unfortunately. Ane's feet kept bouncing on the steps. We could only hope that the other Black Mages below us didn't aim for us.

"Hang in there Ane," I said. "We'll be at the cathedral soon enough."

"What's happening?" he asked weakly. "Did they take the bait?"

A loud snap, followed by a dozen screams answered his question for us as the bridge broke, sending several of Alexandria's soldiers and Black Mages to their deaths hundreds of feet below.

"That's a yes," Gre responded.

"Good," Ane coughed. His head flopped to one side.

"Hey, you're not dying on us!" I yelled. "That's an order Ane!"

"Heh, sorry sir," he said with the faintest smile.

"We're almost there buddy," Gre said as we reached the top of the stairs. "There are medics in the cathedral, so hang on."

"What's taking you?" Dan yelled as he dashed over to us.

"You want to guess?" I yelled sarcastically.

Dan didn't say anything as he grabbed Ane's feet and helped us carry him inside the cathedral. The cathedral was one of the largest buildings in town. It's large steeple roof stood out and made it an obvious target for Alexandria to aim for. Still, with the crystal fragment they wanted inside here, they wouldn't dare risk a direct assault, making it the best place we had for a safe haven for the women and children, as well as our healers.

We laid Ane down on an impromptu mattress and let one of the healers look after him.

"He'll be fine," the moon maiden acting as our main healer said after looking Ane over. "A little scarred, but fine."

"Thanks," I said. Gre just sighed from relief.

"Let's get back out there," Dan said. "Zidane already set the defenses up. We're ready to hold them off again."

All the other teams were set up and ready to repel any enemies who came near us. There were stacks of pillowwood ready to throw and use as bombs if it came down to it, as well as more barricades ready to push into position. Spending the whole night planning paid off big time.

"We're ready to go," Zidane said. "The troops just need their orders."

"Good job man," I said. Tired as I was, it was good knowing someone like Zidane had my back in setting this all up.

"Enemies coming up the left side!" came the call from our observer over by the edge of the hill. Since the cathedral was the highest point in the city, we could see anything that the Alexandrians did from up here. "Lots of them!"

"Right then," I decided. "Archers to the left side. We're going to try out the splinter shot. Spearmen, guard the right side and make sure we're not caught by surprise. Vivi!"

"Yes!" the little mage yelped suddenly.

"Charge up a thunder bolt! We're going to need something big!"

Vivi nodded and fixed his hat once. He gripped his Thunder Staff tightly and began charging.

"Archers, notch arrows!" I ordered. The fourteen remaining archers we had pulled an arrow from their quivers and pulled them tightly against the stings of their bows.

"Aim, up!"

Rather than aim straight for the enemy, we aimed almost straight up, angled slightly down the stairs.

Alexandria's forces came running up, soldiers and mages alike, with no idea what was about to happen.

"I'm ready!" Vivi said, as the enemies came within range.

"Fire!"

Fourteen arrows screamed high into the air, seemingly at nothing at first, but then slowed to a stop and fell, right towards the Alexandrians. The arrows picked up speed and rocketed down onto the careless troops.

"Vivi, if you would," I said.

Just as the arrows were about to pierce into Alexandria's ranks, a large thunderbolt crashed into them, hitting them and sinking their energy into them. The pillowwood the arrows were made of absorbed the energy with just enough time to land. They exploded a second later, sending splinters in every direction, taking out all the charging enemies, instead of only the few we could have taken with normal shots. Our ranks let out enthusiastic, well-deserved cheers.

"Damn, that was awesome!" I let out. "Nice job everyone!" Then I smooshed Vivi's hat with a proud grin.

"How do you come up with these ideas Trevor?" Zidane asked. "I wouldn't have thought of using pillowwood arrows, or blowing them up."

"I'm just awesome, I guess," I said.

"Trouble!" came the cry from the observation post. "Alexandria's amassed on the right side! There must be eight dozen of them!"

Worried, I run up to look over the edge. Sure enough, there were two columns of Alexandrians heading our way. Another splinter shot wouldn't work since they weren't clustered together tightly, and the troops were getting tired enough as it was. We couldn't keep this up much longer.

"Everyone, spread out and defend the cathedral!" I shouted. "This is the last stand! We have to survive this!"

Exhausted as they were, everyone gathered their strengths and drew their weapons, determined to fight for as long as they could. Even I had a hard time taking out my short swords. I just wanted to lay down and rest, but if we stopped now, we'd die. That was always the thing to worry about, wasn't it?

"Their goal is the crystal on top of the harp inside the cathedral! If they get that, then they have no reason to let us stay alive! Protect the cathedral and the people inside with everything you have!"

A loud hoorah came from the troops as I came to the front of the ranks, ready to give everything right here and now.

A fireball pounded on the barricade, leaving smoke trailing out over its top. It didn't explode because we didn't make it out of pillowwood. We thought we'd need these barricades for longer than that. At least, I had hoped we would.

Another fireball hit, then another. More and more of the barricade fell apart as the Black Mages did their parts blasting it away. With one final explosion, it came free and Alexandria's fighters ran up the stairs to meet us.

"Trevor, what are the chances we get out of this alive?" Zidane asked by my side.

"Somewhere between slim and nil," I told him.

"I like those odds," he said, pulling the Ogre out and readying it.

Alexandria's forces stampeded up and met with our forces. They spread out, surrounding us as well as they could. With mages spread out among the fighters, we'd have a hard time getting to them. They could tear us up while they stayed back, defended by their counterparts. We were screwed.

But, just as things looked their darkest—

"Minions of evil! You have gone too far!" came a cry from above. "My spear will purge the land of you!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, a masked Burmecian dropped in from of us from the top of the cathedral. His mask, as well as his attire, made him look like some lost hero of Burmecia. His mask was blood red, and his hair flowed freely out the back of his helmet. His armor was a mix of green and yellow, which mixed well with the flora around us. Even his spear looked deadly and heroic, with a cruel blade decorating the top. Most of all was the air that seemed to surround him. It was calming, but at the same time very, very ominous.

"Is that… Lord Frately?" Freya wondered aloud.

"What, your boyfriend?" Zidane asked, as shocked as anyone else was.

"You shall fall like leaves in the wind under the force of my blade!" Frately shouted before throwing himself into the fray. He jumped straight into the middle of the enemy line, knocking a mage down and impaling it, then moving onto the next foe. He dodged the swords and fireballs of his enemies with such grace, it could almost be called art. This guy was some kind of war god.

"Hey, let's take the advantage while we can!" Zidane cried out.

I looked at him suddenly, like I had broken out of a trance. I shook my head quickly, then realized that he was right.

"Right then," I said. "Everyone charge!"

The remaining troops hollered a battle cry so fierce that the Alexandrians who weren't fighting Frately nearly dropped their weapons. We charged head into them and took them on with fierce determination. Weapons flew, shouts were made, and Alexandrian blood flew everywhere. With Frately fighting for us, we had the advantage and took full advantage of it.

I looked around as I fought. Zidane had no problem taking down a few on his own. Dan and Gre handled themselves well, probably out of anger for their fallen comrades, and took down more enemies than the rest of us. Even Freya, perhaps inspired by seeing the love of her life again fought more fiercely that I had ever seen her before. Even I had an easy time parrying my enemies and driving a short sword into their guts.

The whole battle couldn't have lasted more than a few minutes. It was over almost as soon as it began. Once it was over, however, everyone seemed to gather around Sir Frately. His performance in the battle was what really won it for us.

"Please, I take no credit in this," he insisted. He was acting like he was just an average Joe.

"So, it is over yet?" Zidane asked wearily.

"God I hope so," I said, exhausted. "I'm about ready to collapse."

I probably would have collapsed if Gre wasn't right there to help hold me up.

"C'mon," he said. "Let's go see how Ane's doing. I bet he's wondering what's going on."

"Good idea," I muttered. I dragged my feet as the two of us walked inside.

"So you had this heroic raid while I'm here dyin'?" Ane asked from the floor. Gre and I sat next to him, one on each side. His arm had been bandaged up, hiding the grotesque burn wound.

Zidane and the others were having a meeting with the King, the High Priest of Cleyra and Sir Fratley in the inner hall of the cathedral. A few guards were stationed outside to watch for anything Alexandria did, but everyone else in town was in the large lobby of the cathedral, resting or mourning their losses. Despite how many we lost, we were lucky that our casualty rate was so low. That meant more tired faces than sad ones.

"Ah, you didn't miss much," Gre comforted him. "Sir Fratley came in and finished off most of them. We were just on clean up duty."

"I only got three for myself after that," I said. "It was kind of a cluster of bodies."

"I missed seeing Sir Frately in combat?" Ane said excitedly, then broke into a pained groan. He fell back, gripping his left shoulder in pain. His burn wound was more extensive than I first thought. Most of the skin was gone on his arm and the exposed muscle was badly crisped. It was no wonder he said he couldn't feel his arm before; the nerves were completely destroyed. Without proper white magic to heal him, he'd have to go on with only one arm for the rest of his life.

"I wouldn't worry about it," I said. "You'll see him again later. He might even give you his autograph."

Ane laughed weakly at that. His laugh soon turned into a small grin, then a frown. Ane looked up to me with worried eyes.

"Commander," he asked. "Am I going to be alright?"

I hesitated at first. I wasn't sure what to say. Should I tell him he was probably going to have to amputate, that his only hope for a normal life was to find a white mage? I decided to go with the most hopeful option that I could.

"You'll be fine," I said. "The important thing is that you've survived and your family doesn't have to go to your funeral for a long, long time."

"Really?" Ane asked. He turned to Gre for confirmation.

"Of course!" Gre said assuredly. "The commander wouldn't lie, now would he?"

"Heh, I guess not," Ane said.

"Hey, where is your family?" I asked. "Didn't you say you had a wife and kids?"

"I… don't want them to see me like this," Ane said. "I'm crippled as I am. I can barely even move my arm."

"But they're worried about you, I'm sure of it," I said. "They wouldn't care what condition you're in. They just want to know you're alive."

"You think so?" Ane asked after a moment of thought.

"Bet he's right," Gre agreed. "You stay here, I'll go get them for you."

"Alright, thanks Gre."

Gre stood up slowly, still tired from the fighting it seemed, and walked over to the far side of the room where a woman was resting by her sleeping kids. Ane must have asked them to stay away while we were fighting outside.

"Commander," Ane asked. I looked down at him.

"What's up?" I asked back.

"Are we really going to be alright? I mean, Alexandria can come back any time."

"I'm not sure," I said honestly. "If we can, I want to get everyone out of the city and head to Lindblum. With its Viltgance air force, it's a better place to stay until Alexandria backs off. We might even be able to negotiate with them there."

"I see," he said. "That's good."

It wasn't true of course. Brahne was completely insane and would attack Burmecia as soon as she could, fresh from this assault. Still, it was important to give the soldiers hope.

"Hey, I'm going to go talk to the king and see if we can get an exodus going, alright?" I told Ane as I stood.

"Okay commander," Ane replied. He gave a weak salute and I returned it before leaving. Gre brought Ane's family over and they had a tearful reunion as I left.

Soldiers all over were talking to each other. The Cleyrans, being peaceful as they were, were doing most of the nursing work while families stayed together and talked or comforted each other. I saw Dan and his family sitting against a wall. Dan was telling his kids how well his squad had done and how well he had done in leading them. The kids listened enthusiastically as his wife just smiled. It was good knowing that he had survived the fighting this long. I hated seeing him die in the game.

Although the lobby was just a standard lobby with only its size as its only impressive feature, the inner hall was a more gloriously decorated room. With pink carpeting, soft tan wooden walls, a harp holding the crystal that Alexandria was trying to desperately to get, the room looked more like the front podium of a church. It made sense what with the Cleyrans' society.

As I walked in, the air immediately changed. Outside, it was solemn, but hopeful. In here, it was just sad. Everyone's head was bowed, Freya was on her knees, just keeping it together, and Fratley was nowhere in sight.

"What's going on?" I asked, playing dumb.

Zidane came up to me and took me to once side of the room.

"Freya's a little depressed," he said. "You know that guy Fratley?"

"The guy who saved us outside, yeah," I answered.

"Turns out he was Freya's boyfriend and he went on a trip to better himself as a warrior, but wound up getting lost and somehow got amnesia. He didn't remember Freya, even though they were in love when they parted. Then he just left without a word."

"Ah, geez," I said. "That's horrible!"

"I know. Just try to be careful around Freya. She's really down about this."

"Ahahaha... What irony," Freya said, breaking the room's silence. "To find the man about whom I have dreamt endlessly… only to discover that he cannot even remember who I am!"

"Freya… are you going to be alright?" Zidane asked cautiously.

"It hurts Zidane," she said as she wiped away a single tear. "It really hurts."

Zidane tried to comfort Freya any way he could. Vivi walked over to her out of concern, to help however he could.

As much as I wanted to help Freya, I knew we didn't have long before Alexandria attacked again. The Red Rose was still above us and was still a massive threat. We were just lucky that it was a luxury air ship and not a battleship. Still, there had to be more troops, and the best way to avoid them was to abandon the city.

"Sir," I said respectfully as I could as I approached the king. "I need to talk to you."

"You're Trevor McEvoy, aren't you?" he said, cutting me off.

"Um…yes sir."

"I hope you don't let your sudden glory go to your head," the king said sternly. "There is a lesson in humility to be had. Lady Freya is the main reason you've gotten this far."

"Freya?" I said, confused. "She just told the others to listen to what I said, right?"

"It's more than that," the king said. He turned to gaze out the windows in the back of the room. "Lady Freya came to me and explained the situation. Apparently, you have a very good ability of understanding your enemy. That can be worth more than any weapon on the battlefield."

"I understand sir," I said, still confused, but just as respectful.

"Because Lady Freya told me of your exploits, I ordered all the remaining Burmecians to follow your instructions to the letter. It embarrasses me to say, but we had no military advisors here and the last 700 years of peace gave me little reason to learn it myself. You see, I practiced diplomacy, seeing no need to fight between nations." The king turned back to me. "Lady Freya trusted you and I trusted Freya, and because of that, we are all still alive. For this, I trust you now."

"I'm honored, your highness."

"You've done a great service for my people and the people of Cleyra. On behalf of all of Burmecia, let me be the first to thank you."

The king extended his hand. I was unsure what to do at first, what with my nerves catching up to me, but I took his hand after a few seconds pause and shook hands with royalty. It was a pretty cool feeling.

"With that in mind, I would like to ask your help in striking back at Alexandria. We could use someone like you with us."

I stood in awe at what was going on. Not only was I the one who saved Cleyra, but the king was asking to hire me as a military consultant. Off on the other side of the room, Zidane, Freya and Vivi were looking on happily, as if to encourage me. Freya didn't look depressed anymore, which was good. She always struck me as the strong type.

The situation couldn't be better, but perhaps the best thing of all was that I did it all without Kaiten, and I barely used any Chi. I did it all on my own. I turned back to the king with an answer.

"Well, I—"

A massive explosion stopped me from saying anything more. A hole was blasted in the roof on the right side of the room, just above the harp holding the crystal fragment. Smoke rose and covered the harp, but I could still see the same multicolored orbs that the Black Mages were using to get into the city. It landed among the smoke and faded, revealing General Beatrix once again.

"Beatrix!" Freya shouted. Our party of four began to rush the general, but she drew her sword and pressed the tip against the High Priest's throat. He cowered before her and fell to his knees. We didn't need her to threaten him for us to back off.

"Eeek!" the High Priest cried out. "Have mercy!"

"Hmph! Pathetic rodents!" Beatrix mocked. "You fail to grasp the true power of this jewel!"

With a flick of her sword, she knocked the small crystal from on top of the harp into her hand. She slipped it into a pocket and pressed the sword to the priest's throat again.

"Our precious stone!" the Cleyran on the ground said.

"Now that I have this jewel, I am through with your city!" Beatrix sneered. She kicked the high priest into us and dashed out the room into the lobby.

"Wait!" Zidane cried, along with Freya's "Halt villain!"

I had gotten too far to fail now. If she left here with that jewel, then there was nothing to stop Brahne from destroying the city. I couldn't let that happen.

Zidane, Freya, Vivi, then myself all chased after Beatrix. Her brief presence caused quite a commotion as everyone was up in arms after seeing her. As I ran, Dan and Gre ran up along side of me.

"What's going on?" Dan asked. "What the hell's Beatrix doing here?"

"What do we do commander?" Gre asked. "Do we attack?"

I took a moment to think as we ran, which wasn't easy since my body was gearing up for an all out brawl. Still, what little thinking I could do, I did quickly.

"Dan, get the able forces up outside the cathedral! We need a defense line! Gre, get the women, children and injured away from the door. We can't risk them."

"Right!"

"Yes sir!"

Both ran off and began their jobs. I looked ahead and saw Beatrix just exiting the building. If she got out there with the crystal and found a Black Mage to transport her to the Red Rose, then there was nothing we could do.

My horror came true as we left the building. The light came brightly at first, but as soon as my eyes adjusted, I saw that there were lots and lots of Black Mages. They were all standing guard at both paths leading down to the rest of town. We had no way to get out. But Beatrix did if just one of the Black Mages activated its warp ability.

"Think you can get away?" Zidane yelled. It worked better than it should have at stopping her. Beatrix slowed her run to a halt and turned around.

"Get away?" she asked, raising and eyebrow mockingly. "Hahaha. You're a bigger fool than I imagined… Have you forgotten how badly I beat you back in Burmecia?"

"So, you are more of a fool for not finishing what you started!" Freya remarked.

"You're gonna pay!" Vivi shouted.

I just pulled out my short swords and held them defensively, determined to stop her before things got out of hand. "Let's finish this!"

"Then allow me to shatter your delusions of grandeur." Beatrix said ominously. She raised her sword to her shoulder, tip raised to the side of her head. "I don't know how you survived getting your chest blasted open, but I'll finish with you first brat," she said, glaring at me.

A soft blue light began to gather around her sword, mostly around the center. I knew it was Shock, her strongest attack. She used it on Vivi back in Burmecia and knocked him out in one hit. It nearly killed him too. If it hit me—

"_Finally, some action! Let me take over!_"

_What?_ I said, amazed at Kaiten's bad timing. _Absolutely not! Last time I nearly died! Now shut up, I need to concentrate!_

"_I'm fighting her! You're too green!_"

_And you're an asshole! Shut up! I don't need your help._

"_Who said anything about help? I'm doing this for me_."

As Beatrix nearly finished her charge, I felt an odd sinking sensation, like I was being pulled back only slightly. As the world began to darken, I looked up, wondering if some clouds or the Red Rose were covering up the sunlight. The realization of what was really happening came to late though.

"_I'm doing this for me as well_," Kaiten said, seconds before I blacked out.

XXXXXXXX

When I woke up, I was worried that I had missed the battle and that everyone else was dead. Beatrix would have been long gone with the crystal and Brahne would be sending in an eidolon at any second to finish us off.

No such luck however. As I looked around, I realized that I was in a grassy field, one that I hadn't seen in years.

"This is Nicole's house," I quickly remembered. Off in the distance, across the large field was her house, surrounded by trees in the woods. "Why am I here?"

"Because I opened the right book," came a voice. I turned around and saw Kaiten standing a few yards away from me in full battle gear like before, but now he had a pair of katanas strapped to his back.

"Kaiten!" I shouted. "What are you doing? I have to help the others!"

"No, I'll be fighting the bitch once we're done here," he said dangerously.

"What are you talking about?" I said. I felt myself reaching down to my hip for my short swords, but found nothing there.

"What is our situation?" he asked. "Two souls in one body. Clearly unnatural."

"So what?"

"Well, it's not right. A body should have only one soul. That's the way things are supposed to be, aren't they?"

My eyes widened at first, but narrowed as I tried to calm myself down.

"Are you completely insane?" I said in a low voice. "This is my body and my soul! You don't know what will happen if you kill me!"

"But I'm willing to find out," he grinned. He pulled out the two katanas from his back and got into a leveled stance with both swords crossed before himself.

"One of us will go on to fight the bitch. The other will die here," he explained.

"Kaiten—"

"Now, en guard!"

XXXXXXXX

We have a new contender for largest Shattered Mind chapter. This one with over 14000 words and 37 pages on Word! That's over 2000 more words and 6 more pages than the last chapter! XD Hah, I really seem to be getting a knack for these long chapters, don't I? And it's especially surprising (to me at least) that I managed to get it done so quickly.

One thing I wanted to say though is that I hope I didn't put too much into it. My father explained that if you put too much action into a story like this, then it'll become tiresome. I'm just hoping it never got that bad, so I tried to start it off slowly and give the occasional breaks, like with Delores. Still, in terms of action, this may be… aw screw it. This IS my best chapter for action-y goodness! XD XD XD

However, in the hope of bettering myself as a writer, please leave a review stating how clear or not clear the battle was. If it was too confusing, I can always go back and fix some things up.

So, what'll happen now? What will happen between Kaiten and Trevor? What's happening with Beatrix? And what happened to Delores? Find out next chapter! Hopefully before Christmas!

-Krimson Rogue


	7. Kaiten's Battle Plan

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story, or the songs mentioned below.

Author's note: Damn. I guess the last chapter wasn't as good as I had hoped. Well fortunately, I know what I did wrong, so I have a chance to make it better with this chapter. There was too much detail in the last chapter, so I'm just touching up a little bit now and then.

Also, sorry for taking so long to update. I've been taking 3 writing classes, one of which is for business writing, and MY GOD is it hard. But because of this tardiness, I've made a new poll in my profile, asking if I'm an ass for taking this long XP. Go check it out and vote for it as you please.

Also, in this chapter I introduce Trevor and Kaiten's battle themes, mainly because I could and I wanted to try something new. The first song is Kaiten's theme, "Mindfreak" by Criss Angel. And although I ended up not using it, the second is Trevor's theme, "With My Mind" by Cold. Both are very, very good. **However, to avoid confusion, the lyrics (which are somewhat relevant to the characters) will be written in bold**. I've put some links to some good AMV's of these songs which I enjoy in my profile so that you can hear and enjoy them yourself. Go ahead and check them out.

P.S. If you haven't watched any of Criss Angel's magic tricks, you should, because the logical explanation for almost all of them is that they are magic. No I'm not kidding.

With that all said, enjoy the next chapter of Shattered Mind Keep in mind that there is a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, so keep your eye open for it. ;)

Chapter 7- Kaiten's Battle Plan.

--

So there I was, about to fight to the death with the evil soul shot into my head in front of a mentally projected scene of my ex-girlfriend's house. Not quite a normal day for me, but not a huge stretch.

"Kaiten, don't do this," I asked, backing away slightly. My lack of weaponry gave me a slight disadvantage.

"Why shouldn't I?" Kaiten mocked. "I'm tired of just sitting around here, bored as hell."

"We said we'd work together!"

"That won't work and you know it. You're just buying time to keep yourself alive."

He was right. He was a Terran lieutenant and I had no idea how to fight here. I was screwed. My only hope was that someone would come by and wake me up like last time.

"And don't think you'll get away like last time," Kaiten said. "The human mind is an amazing thing. Take observation of the passing of time. It's moving slower for us in here than in real life. It'll probably feel like another month before the bitch's attack hits you. Don't worry though. You'll be dead long, long before that."

Correction. I _really_ was screwed.

"You're not going to get away with this," I said. It was an idle threat, but what else could I do?

"Yeah, I'm sure," Kaiten said sarcastically. "Goodbye 'Host'."

Kaiten drew both swords and charged them up. I looked around desperately to find something—anything—to use. It was then that I remembered what this memory was. I looked up at the top of the hill and saw an image of a younger me walking along with Nicole at my side.

"Hey!" I called up to the younger me. "Are you going to help me or not?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Kaiten demanded. "People are like holograms here. They can't help you."

You wouldn't have thought so seeing how the younger me reacted. After letting out a loud 'Banzai!' he launched himself down the hill, aiming straight for Kaiten.

"What?" the Terran let out, looking on in astonishment. He took the charge from his sword and released it at the version of me rolling towards him.

I took this small chance to get away while I could. I jumped into the underbrush on the other side of the hill and ran through the woods as fast as I could. Soon enough, I was too far for Kaiten to attack. This was a memory of the first time I went to Nicole's house. The hill in front was so steep I couldn't help but roll down it. It was just lucky that Kaiten was standing where he was and that my timing was so good.

As I dashed through the woods, I saw the memory fade. My guess was that I was getting too far from the memory book. The world molded into a hallway. The sickening color of bland white coated the walls, separated by the occasional poster for some school function going on. I quickly realized it was my middle school and dashed down the hall into one of the classrooms.

Inside, the students were clamoring about one thing or another and there was a tank of cockroaches smashed on one end of the room. I remembered this all too well. Just minutes ago, some dumbass threw me into the tank. He was off being suspended and I was in the medic's room. Good times. I wanted to kill them.

"Okay… weapon… I need a weapon," I told myself. I looked around, and of course didn't find anything. Even if there was a sword lying around by dumb luck, I doubt I'd be able to grab it. Stupid holograms.

"How the hell did Kaiten get his katanas?" I continued to wonder. "He didn't have anything before. He wouldn't have bothered to hide them from me. That's not like him."

"You know, you talk too much."

My eyes shot open from surprise. My eyes wrinkled and I turned around regrettably to see my attempted kill once again.

"That was a good trick with the hologram," Kaiten said. "I think I blew up half that hill before coming to get you."

"You're going to keep doing this, aren't you?"

"If you can think of a better solution, then please, let me know."

"How about you not kill me?"

"Wrong answer!"

Before I could react, Kaiten came at me. His blade slashed my chest and ran down, cutting just beneath the skin. A stream of blood soon followed as I began to bleed out.

I yelped in pain before turning around and running.

"Oh, don't go!" Kaiten provoked. "It was just getting fun!"

Before I reached the door, Kaiten landed a kick to my back, knocking me into the window. It cracked and I would have fallen if Kaiten's foot wasn't pushing me against the door.

"Kaiten…stop-"

"Why? It's not like I'll lose anything."

"You…bastard!"

Kaiten's foot fell back for a second, only to come back and kick me through the door. The wood practically splintered as I fell out into the hallway and into the janitor's closet across the hall, clutching my still-bleeding chest. I got tangled in a mess of brooms and cleaning supplies while trying to stand up again. My hand reached beneath me for support, but instead of tile floor, I was surprised to feel paper. I looked down and saw that I was sitting on a book.

"And here I was hoping you'd give me more of a challenge," Kaiten said mockingly as he walked dramatically towards me. He stood in the doorway and blocked my only way out.

As I struggled to get to my feet, Kaiten brought down a katana and pushed it into my torso. I felt it break through my stomach wall and tear up my organs. Even if this was just taking place inside my head, it still hurt like hell. I belted out a scream that echoed perversely in the small closet. Blood began to pool inside my mouth.

"Running time is over," Kaiten said fatally over my screams. "Time to die."

Kaiten raised the second blade over his head. I clenched my eyes shut and reached below me, feeling the book again and slipped. I prayed that it was the memory book and that it took me to a better memory where it would hold Kaiten off for a while.

I was still growling in pain with the sword still stuck in my stomach. However, after several seconds, Kaiten still hadn't finished me off. I opened my eyes and saw a plain white wall and cushions compressing me on both sides. The air was sterile and I was cramped into an uncomfortably small chair. Kaiten was nowhere to be seen, so I pulled the sword out of my gut and struggled to a more open area.

As soon as I wedged myself free, a voice came over the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are coming to our final descent. Please put your seat back up and your tray in the upright and locked position."

I looked around in astonishment. For the first time in my life, I was on an airplane and somewhat content with the situation. It must have been the time my father took me to Florida for a week for the summer. That meant Kaiten had fallen on the outside of the plane and was probably still heading towards the ground. Funny as it was, I could only sign in relief as I gripped my stomach in another wave of pain.

"Agh…dammit," I grunted as the nausea began to take hold of me. I was fine for now, but how long did I have before Kaiten found me again? With this wound, I could barely even stand up. I'd have no chance if I saw him again.

"I need to heal," I told myself. "White magic, bandages…or something…"

My thoughts bounced around healing, unsure how to go about it. There was no way to interact with the world around me, so I was on my own. Unless I learned white magic in the next few seconds, there was nothing I could do.

I laid in pain for only a few more seconds before I realized that the ache was dulling. I looked down and saw that my wound was closing. The blood still stained my shirt, but the slit in my skin bound together and sealed itself.

With the pain gone, I was able to get to my feet. I picked up my newly acquired katana and gripped it tightly. Now I had a weapon and a slight understanding how things worked around here. If I could heal myself just by wishing it, then Kaiten would have a harder time taking me down. On top of that, it might have explained why he had armor and weaponry. Now, I knew his tricks.

I geared myself for battle as the plane landed. It bounced once before screeching to a halt.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've landed at our destination," said the voice over the intercom. "Please stay in your seat until we've come to a complete stop at the terminal."

George Carlin would have had a field day with that line.

I walked to the front of the plane, determined to get onto the runway as soon as I could. Kaiten wouldn't stay down for long and I wanted to get into the open to continue the fight.

"Alright," I said, holding my katana at my side in a ready stance. "Here we go."

The plane stopped and the flight attendant opened the door. I was about to take a step out before a sword came through the doorway and sunk into the wall behind me.

"Oh come on!" I blurted out of frustration.

I backed away from the door and saw an arm clad in metallic blue armor grab the katana in the wall and pull it out. Kaiten came into view a second later, looking as pissed as ever.

"Nice trick, changing the scene like that," he said. "But I worked too hard at setting this up to let you screw with it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Kaiten smiled as he pulled out a pair of books. The first one was titled "Imagination". Kaiten opened it and dropped it to the ground. Immediately, the airplane faded away and was replaced by sheets of blue ice. It swam out from the book and covered the ground as far as I could see. Mountains of snow sprouted in the distance and the floor shined from sunlight reflecting on the ice beneath us.

"This is Ice Land," I recalled. "I made this up when I was a kid."

"I thought it would make for a decent burial scene for you."

The area was wide and open and the ground was slippery. It gave Kaiten a perfect advantage when taking my fighting style into account. Against someone like him, I tended to fight more erratically in order to disorient them, often by passing by them with speed and agility. The wide area gave me the perfect chance to do that, but without friction, I'd just slip and wouldn't be able to control myself as I slid away. Kaiten really had thought this through.

"And just for atmosphere, I thought I'd use this," Kaiten said, putting down the second book. It was titled, "Music". He placed it open to a page in the back and a guitar riff began to play throughout. **Are you ready?**

"This one?" I asked over the intro. "We're fighting to the death to 'Mindfreak'?"

"Seemed appropriate," he said, picking up his remaining katana. "Prepare yourself."

I struck a defensive pose, leaving me with less than a second before Kaiten charged.

**These powers bleed your tears**

**You talk they scold your name**

Kaiten unleashed a brutal flurry of swings at my throat. I was able to block each one, but with only an inch or so each time. My nerves quickly tightened, reacting to the slightest movement Kaiten made. I was beginning to understand why he advanced in the military so well.

**I'm staring down your fears**

**There's pleasure in this pain**

Kaiten broke off his routine and took a swing at my legs. I jumped back, but still took a cut to the shin. It was a light wound, but the danger was from the distraction it caused. Kaiten was able to rush in and body slammed me before I could counter. It sent me on my back and I slid across the ice.

**Don't think you are alone**

**'Cause soon I think you'll find**

I recovered as quickly as I could, grinding my sword against the ice for traction. I got to one knee and held my blade over my head as Kaiten came in with a blow to my head. If my katana wasn't there, he would have cut me in half. I saw Kaiten grin down at me before I leaned back and pushed against him, sliding back and getting some space for myself.

**I am the voice you hear**

**Screaming inside your mind**

I stood again, limping on my cut leg. My thoughts went back to when I used to spar with Sensei. I never felt like I was in danger against him because I knew he had enough control to stop before he really hurt me. And yet, for that very reason, I was afraid of Kaiten. I was only alive either because I was abnormally lucky or because he was going easy on me.

**I've got to touch your mind**

**I hypnotize**

"You're not bad," Kaiten smirked. "I thought I'd be able to kill you within a minute like this."

"You're insane," I grunted.

**I am the mindfreak**

**Mindfreak**

**There's no reality**

**Just this world of illusion**

**That keeps on haunting me**

"Oh well. I guess I'll just have to use magic after all."

Kaiten's sword washed over with a light purple haze. It deepened to a dark purple centered around the tip when it was done. Kaiten swung once at the mountains in the distance, aiming for one of the closer ones. A sliver of light shot out and hit the mountain, causing a low rumble as the mountaintop crumbled.

"Yeah, that'll work. I haven't used Arc since the last time I fought the bitch."

Kaiten looked back at me and grinned. He powered up his katana again. With no other option or way to defend myself, I did the same, swelling the power at the tip of my blade. Pulse was useless in this situation, so I had to use Explosion to block. I just prayed that it didn't kill me in the attempt.

**My ego pushes you**

**It's never satisfied**

As Kaiten's energy glowed a deeper shade, my attack finished forming. An orb sat on the tip of my blade and I stood back to intercept it more easily.

**My will is cutting through**

**I see the truth inside**

"Eat this!" Kaiten yelled. He sent a bolt of energy at my chest. I caught it in time, but his Arc bit through my Explosion. The energy released at once and blew up in my face. I fell back on my ass coughing, amazed that I was still intact after that.

**Don't think it's killing you**

**'Cause soon I think you'll find**

"We're not done yet!"

Before I could defend, another Arc shot through the air. I moved to block, but it just cut through my katana, cutting off most of the blade and leaving me with just the handle.

**You are the voice you hear**

**Screaming inside your mind**

"Hahaha! Run 'Host'!"

I looked up and saw Kaiten somehow flying in the air above me. I would have complained about it, but I could heal myself with no knowledge of white magic, so it seemed out of place.

He held his katana at the ready, but had one hand out at his side. Within seconds, he manifested another katana from nothing, matching the first. He powered them up, flames dancing along both of them.

**I've got to touch your mind**

**I hypnotize**

"Aw…shit."

I picked myself and dashed away as fast as I could, slipping occasionally. I felt Kaiten's killing intent coming from behind me as he pressed his attack. A flurry of Arcs came in behind me, slashing into the ground, each going off with an immense blast. They barely missed me, but the terror of being cut in half by them caused me to double my efforts in running until I could retaliate.

"Crap!" I yelped as I picked up the pace.

_How did he make a new sword like that?_ I wondered as I ran. _Is that another ability he has? Can I do that?_

**I am the mindfreak**

**Mindfreak**

**There's no reality**

**Just this world of illusion**

**That keeps on haunting me**

I risked a glance back and saw that Kaiten as now flying behind me and catching up. My legs were starting to burn and my breath was running short. I should have rested more after the previous fight with Alexandria.

_Would that even have an effect in this world?_

**I am the mindfreak**

**Mindfreak**

Another blast came from the side. I jumped over a step and kept running as the scorched ice steamed up. Kaiten was just toying with me, the bastard.

**I am the mindfreak**

**Mindfreak**

"That's it, keep running!" he shouted.

I noticed that the Arcs had stopped coming. I didn't have any way of looking back at him at this speed without tripping myself up, but I did still have my sword. There was a little bit of polished metal left on the hilt; enough to use as a mirror.

**I am the mindfreak**

**Mindfreak**

To my horror, the reflection in the blade showed Kaiten powering up a new spell. He had a pair of orbs in each katana. He clapped them together, shooting the attack right in front of me. The Explosions came together and made a tornado heading right for me. All his attacks were to keep me running and tire me out.

I skidded to a halt and sank what little remained of my sword into the ice. I slowed down quickly just as the Whirlwind landed in front of me, where I would have been if I didn't react.

I didn't have enough friction to stop moving though, and I slid into the hole that burst through the ice, falling into the darkness. I heard the song fade away as I sank.

**I am the mindfreak…**

The hole wasn't too deep. I landed after a second, collapsing to my stomach. There was a pain in the back of my head. I hoped that he hole didn't do anything physically to me. We _were_ still in my subconscious, which could have massive effects on my brain for all I knew.

As the wind came back to me, I stood, inspecting the area. My sides hurt from the fall, so I held it tightly as I walked. At first, all I could see was the grass below me. It was soft and swayed gently as a soft wind blew by. There was darkness everywhere else, but the room slowly lit. More and more, the area in which I could see spread out, revealing the land around me. The grass was beautiful and was relaxing, despite the battle I was still in.

Suddenly, the circle of light stopped spreading. At the very edge, I could see something red, like jelly, spread on the grass. I walked up to it, touching it. It was slightly sticky like jelly. It didn't smell sweet. It smelled like… iron.

_Blood_.

My eyes widened as another breeze fell upon me, but this time it was much hotter. It was like someone was fanning flames at me. As I looked up, the darkness taking up the entire room dissipated. It revealed the scene at once and made me fall back a step.

The rest of the field was not just covered in blood, but soaked in it. Everything was red up to the silhouetted house in the distance. A wall of fire decorated the house, dancing at the sides, licking the wood all along it. Something happened here, I could tell. Kaiten must have burst through a layer beneath my subconscious.

_This was where my dream had been coming from for the past few days._

"So there you are. Not very smart to let your guard down in the middle of a battle."

Kaiten was floating down behind me where the hole had been. He had both swords charged and at his sides, looking at me sinisterly. His face contorted for a second though as he checked out surroundings.

"What the hell is this?" he asked.

"This is what I asked you to find," I told him. "I've been dreaming of this place for a while and I don't know why."

Kaiten looked for a second more before floating down to the ground.

"So it was hidden. That's why I couldn't find it," Kaiten noted. "Boy, you have some messed up fantasies, don't you?"

"Go to hell!"

Kaiten kicked me in the side and I landed in the blood. The ground clung to my clothes as I sat up.

"I'll have to remember to redecorate this place when I take over."

"Like that'll happen," I retorted.

Kaiten laughed. "What are you going to do? You don't even have a sword!"

"Shut up."

"The best you could do right now is bleed. You wouldn't even notice with the ground like this though."

"I'm going to kick your ass so hard-"

Kaiten interrupted me with another kick to my jaw. I heard it crack as I fell back, landing on my stomach this time. The scent of blood filled my senses and the heat of the moment caught up with me.

I knew Kaiten had every advantage. I knew I was going to die in this place. I had no way to fight back as I was. Even if I did, I didn't have the same drive that Kaiten did. I was beaten in every way.

"Tell you what," Kaiten said. "You're clearly outclassed, so I'll let you have a quick death. Just turn around and I'll cut your head off in one go. You won't even feel anything."

I dragged what was left of my sword along the grass. I pulled at it until it stuck on something. I looked down and saw something bubbling up beneath the surface. Something came up from the ground, like a square box. A second one followed, bubbling up right next to it.

"Well?" Kaiten said impatiently. "Are you giving up or what?"

I examined the boxes closer, only to realize that they both books. In fact, they were both the same size as the memory books from the upper level.

The blood was washed over it, covering the titles. I put my hand on the first book. It was warm at first, but it heated up and began to burn me. I pulled away quickly, but the heat from the book began to dry up some of the blood. Lighted lines crept over the book slowly.

"What are you doing?" Kaiten barked angrily. "Answer my question!"

"_Use…your anger…"_ came a voice in little more than a whisper. It was deep and dark. Somehow, something inside me told me to be afraid of it. "_Kill…everyone…"_

As I looked at the book, the burning in my hand intensified. A beam of light shot out and connected with my burn wound. The pain stopped in an instant and filled me with a new energy.

"_They will… betray you…"_ the voice said slowly. "_They will…hurt you… Kill them first…_"

The energy made my chest hot. It became harder to breath suddenly and the air grew hotter. My pulse doubled and my vision blurred. Everything in my mind became clearer. The world was kill or be killed.

"That's it!" Kaiten yelled. He jumped in front of me and slammed both books back into the ground, stopping the energy transfer. "I'm just gonna cut you in half!"

I felt his blade cut through the air for me, but I twisted my hand above my head, just as a new sword appeared in place of my old one. It sprouted from my fist and stopped Kaiten's katana in its place.

"What?" he cried out in surprise.

"That's enough," I said. My voice sounded like it was full of gravel.

"Damn you, you little shit!"

Kaiten and I raised our blades at each other. They crashed and the metallic clang echoed throughout the area. We struggled against each other until I took one step forward. I spun, unleashing the energy in my blade and sent Kaiten flying back into the fence all the way on the other side of the field. I slowly made my way to him.

"What the hell is that sword?" he demanded as he pushed away from the fence.

I had been so focused in fighting him back that I didn't even notice. I glanced at my sword briefly, then did a double take as I realized what I had made. The blade wasn't straight, like a broadsword. It swam down like a wavy line from the skull-shaped cross guard. It was a Kris, and with its distinct design, there was only one sword it could be.

I had created the Soul Reaver.

Armed with the sword from the Legacy of Kain series, there was little wonder why I was so powered up now. I just smiled.

Kaiten was screwed.

"So you're getting serious this time?" he asked.

"I've put up with you long enough," I shouted.

"I offer help for you in the past and this is how it ends up?"

"You tried to kill me!"

"If I was going to kill you, you'd be dead already! I was just going to hide you away in a corner of your mind until I had gotten the storyline back on track. Like you said, who knows what killing you would have done? But because you had to play the hero, we've lost our edge on knowing what will happen!"

My anger spiked. "Are you saying I should have let Cleyra fall?"

"You can't fight fate! Don't even try!"

I had heard enough. "Go to hell!" I cried out as I began charging him.

"I'm gonna kick your face in!" Kaiten yelled back as he rushed at me.

Kaiten held his blades out front and to the side. I held mine low and to the side. When we swung, our swords crashed, but I had the upper hand. Using my new energy, I was able to push Kaiten's blades up and away for only a second. I pressed the attack, spinning once and using my momentum to hit him low, knocking him into the air.

The attack didn't do much. Kaiten recovered quickly and held himself several feet above me.

"If you want to fight, then let's not do it here," Kaiten suggested. "This place is abysmal."

Kaiten huffed once before he flew up, leaving me below.

"Hey!" I called after him. It was useless to protest, I knew, but I was running more on instinct.

_How to get up…,_ I thought to myself. _Well, I created the Soul Reaver. I should be able to fly too._

Just like healing myself on the plane and creating my sword, everything seemed to be linked to what I could imagine. I simply concentrated on levitating myself.

Much to my surprise, it worked. I felt lighter with just a little focus and could already jump much higher than a moment ago. I got a few practice jumps in before really letting go and pushed hard against the ground. This time, I stayed up, hovering a few feet. It wasn't much, but I could continue the fight with Kaiten now.

I headed straight up, going straight for the hole in the ceiling. Kaiten wasn't going to get away with what he had done. I wasn't going to kill him, but I still had to straighten a few things out…

--

"My, my… He finally did it."

"Did what Hart?" came the grouchy reply.

Hart Innural stood by his computers in the wide room, analyzing his latest experiment. It was an honor that he was granted such leeway given that these were some of the last computers still active on Terra. Ever since he had traveled down to Gaia, he had taken strict care of his sample, making sure the soul link was in tact. A pair of computer screens displayed several bars and readings, giving all the data he needed on his test subjects.

"It's Unit 00 and Unit 01," Hart replied. He scratched his bald head, putting what little hair he had left back in place. "Whatever they're doing, they've released Unit 00's potential. His energy levels just went off the chart!"

"Are you sure your technology is working properly?" the second old man asked. "You _are_ assessing their data while on another planet."

"My machines are working fine! To hell with you for thinking otherwise!" Hart blurted out. "I just needed a genetic and soul sample from Unit 00 and the soul data from Unit 01. With that, I had all I needed to track them both and differentiate between the two. My machines analyze their power levels, vital signs and even mental activity perfectly! There are no flaws about it!"

"Isn't that what you said about your regrowth serum? Instead of growing your subject's arm back, it just sprouted random muscle tissue on his shoulder. You had merely rediscovered cancer."

"Do not toy with me Saiko!"

"Or your attempts to administer Terra's resurrection by offering souls to power the planet? Or the Spectral Knights? You know that I'm still upset that you wasted them like that. They were Olesta's best special forces group."

"It was because of them that we were able to properly form Unit 01's soul and inject him."

Saiko stood with a blank expression for a moment. "Your failure rate is beaten only by your stubborn demeanor."

"With the right effort, failure is just a gateway to success."

"And you are sure this is success?" Saiko asked. He stroked his white beard patiently, observing something that Hart hadn't noticed.

"I haven't a doubt in my mind!" the proud scientist proclaimed.

"Then I believe your test subject is dying," Saiko said coolly. "It seems his vital signs are weakening."

Hart turned in horror to the screen once again and saw that the vital signs were indeed fading. The response from Unit 01 was minimal and Unit 00's vitals were just out of reach of death.

"No, no, NO!" Hart cried out. "How is this happening? They were so powerful! There should be nothing that could do this!"

"I'll head for the visual room," Saiko said calmly. "Stay here and make sure he doesn't die. We'll stand no chance if he's not around to fight for us."

Hart was left clinging to the screen, hoping, praying that the vital signs didn't reach zero. They had gone too far and there were no specimens left. If Kaiten died and they couldn't find a replacement for Trevor soon, then Terra had no hope for survival.

--

In the short time I had to get up to the ceiling, I had all but mastered flying. My mind was like a laser now, focused and deadly. I felt like I could do anything.

I was done getting beaten around by Kaiten.

Ice Land opened itself up to me again as I flew back to the surface. The music from before had stopped, leaving the air in an eerie silence. I landed a few feet from the hole, scanning the area for any more of Kaiten's tricks.

"Took you long enough," Kaiten's voice came from above. I looked up and watched as he floated down to meet me. "We can still fix the storyline. Let the bitch go back to her keeper and she'll blow up the tree. Everything will work itself out from there."

"I'm not going to let those people die!" I protested.

"Then I'm not holding back anymore. Just try not to get killed."

"I'm not going to lose!"

As the air thickened around us, the ice started to crack. A large fissure broke off of a glacier in the distance, making a massive block of ice fall. It was the signal to start our fight.

Kaiten and I darted towards each other at the same time. The Soul Reaver met in the middle of his crossed katanas, sticking us in a deadlock.

"Why do you have to be so short-sighted?" Kaiten said.

"Short-sighted?" I asked. "Because of Cleyra?"

"You can't save everyone! It's just not possible!"

I started to buckle under Kaiten's attack. "But I can still try!" I barked back.

"Fool."

Kaiten powered up his swords and each sprouted Explosions at their tips. Before I could turn away, he pulled them together, unleashing the attack. A huge explosion went off in my face, engulfing the Soul Reaver. I thought I was lucky not to have been killed, but Kaiten rushed through the smoke. He sliced through my sword and twisted, kicking me square in the chest. I fell back and bounced once before picking myself up.

I looked down at my sword. There wasn't enough blade left to call it a dagger.

"How the hell did you do that?" I demanded. "You shouldn't be able to cut through swords like that!"

"That wasn't a real sword," Kaiten said. "That was just something from a video game. It doesn't have the same presence that my swords have."

"Presence?"

Kaiten held up a sword to demonstrate. "I've used these blades. They're my memories from when I was a soldier. You sword was just from some game and never existed in real life."

I glanced down at the stubble of a blade that was left and tossed it down to the ground. "So I'll just make a real sword then," I told him, concentrating on one of my katanas from home.

Kaiten let out a laugh. "That takes more time to make a real sword than a fake one. And I'm not going to let you have it!"

Kaiten came again in with both blades across his chest, ready with a double draw. I held out my hand defensively and created the first sword that came to mind.

"Keyblade!"

Instantly, a thin metal bar came into my grasp and grew a hand-guard and some notches at the tip, looking very much like a giant key.

Kaiten clashed his swords and met mine hard. The integrity of the Keyblade kept it safe, but the Terran had his momentum going and leapt up, taking flight. He carried me with him, helplessly. Ice Land faded away and we headed into another memory. This one was Luray Caverns. The sights were amazing and I loved visiting the place when I was a kid. Kaiten must have been trying to use the sights and nostalgia to distract me.

"Another fake sword?" Kaiten asked as we flew into the cave. "This one is even more ridiculous than the last one!"

"You know, you have no imagination," I scolded him. Before we smashed into the cavern walls, I took over flying as well and flipped underneath Kaiten, avoiding his katanas, and wound up behind him. "I guess that's why you want to follow the storyline so obediently."

"In war, Intel is vital," Kaiten said. "Because my men and I didn't have correct information, they were murdered at Ckelen-te-Clu and I was put into this situation."

"What?!" I blurted out. "You mean you're willing to sacrifice hundreds of people just because it would be more convenient for you?!"

"At least I'm including you as a survivor. Be thankful for that."

"YOU BASTARD!!"

I flew straight for Kaiten's chest, meaning to somehow impale him on my Keyblade, but he caught my attack and deflected. I nearly crashed into a wall, but corrected myself at the last second and skidded to a halt.

"I've already told you, this is war!" Kaiten shouted. "People will get hurt, and they will die. You're acting like an idealistic child!"

"Why should I listen to you? You're a heartless bastard."

"You don't have any experience in war! What could someone who's never been in battle know about it?"

I ground my teeth together in anger. Logically, he had a point, and I was idealistic at times, but that didn't mean I was wrong.

"Alright, I've had enou-"

Kaiten suddenly cut me off when he appeared in front of me. He quickly held his katana out and sent a pulse wave that cut through the Keyblade. The rod fell in half, leaving me with only a foot and a half of steel.

"You see what I mean?" Kaiten said. "Your type falters in battle. I'm the type who makes a decision and sticks with it." He held both swords at his sides as he powered up his Explosions spells again…

"Now, just die,"

…And crashed the katanas together, creating a Whirlwind that ripped through the cave. If I wasn't on edge already, it would have killed me easily, but I deflected it with the remainder of the Keyblade at the last possible second.

The Whirlwind ate away at the rock behind me, carving a tunnel long enough that I could see daylight far at the other end.

"I see that thing still has some use after all," Kaiten commented.

"We'll see what else it can do," I said. I took off down the newly created tunnel and ran down as fast as I could.

"Trying to get away?" Kaiten taunted after me.

I didn't answer and just concentrated as much as I could on running. He still had his ranged attack, Arc, after all, and I had nowhere to go but straight ahead.

"Fine, be like that," Kaiten said. I glanced back and saw him power up his sword for an Arc and launch it right at me.

"Crap!" I yelled. I held the remains of the Keyblade out at my side and concentrated as hard as I could. _Please work_, I begged.

Although the sword was broken, I was still able to conjure up some energy to make an Explosion form at the tip. The second it generated, I thrust it into the wall as I ran, causing the rocks behind me to crumble. Kaiten's Arc was lost as the rubble fell, covering my path behind me.

I made my way out of the cavern as the Explosion lost the last of its energy. Outside was a hill leading down into a grassy field. I charged down the hill and made my way to the field.

_I guess I did nothing more than annoy him there, _I thought as I ran.

A scream poured out of the caves from behind me. A loud explosion opened up the tunnel from the rubble and cleared the way for the Terran lieutenant.

"Get back here you useless host!" Kaiten screamed. He came flying out of the tunnel and shot right towards me.

_Crap!_

I ran to the field as quickly as I could, slowing to a stop once I got to the middle. Although it didn't have any cover, there was nothing in the area Kaiten could use against me. If I could best him in a one-on-one sword fight there, I could end this.

Kaiten landed a few feet off. I turned to face him and the two of us had a staring contest to see who would back down first.

"Are you finally giving up?" he said dangerously.

"I already told you, I'm not letting those people die," I explained.

"Ah, yes. That's your mantra, isn't it?"

"Protect the innocent, condemn the corrupt," I recited.

"Very cute, but that kind of thinking will only end in failure."

"Shut up!" I shouted. "No one's going to die because of your cynicism!"

"Oh? Do you have some master plan then? Please tell me. I'm interested because you've been doing so well for yourself lately."

Ever since I began my offensive, I had been using the right idea, but with the wrong method. The Soul Reaver and the Keyblade were powerful, but I shouldn't have been going with power. What I needed was strategy. That meant a new type of weapon entirely.

I held the remains of the Keyblade in my left hand and concentrated, changing its shape. The metal began to glow and shifted, the hand-guard disappearing and the blade widening. Soon, I was left with a dagger that looked more like a decoration than a weapon. The thin, blue metal on the blade and the ornate cross-guard weren't meant for real sword-on-sword combat, but if this went right, I wouldn't need it for that. The important part though was the glowing sand inside the hollowed-out handle.

"You're kidding, right?" Kaiten blurted out. "The Kris you were using before was better than this!"

"You're the one who was harping on about military Intel before," I reminded him. "Don't think you can win anymore."

"With a dagger? Unless there's really a gun turret inside that thing, I think you're deluding yourself."

"You didn't read my memories on video games, did you?"

"Oh yes, I would so love reading tales of children's games all day," Kaiten said, dripping with venomous sarcasm. "What the hell do you take me for?!"

"Now? You're just over-confident."

Kaiten just grinned demonically. "Over-confident, huh?"

Without another word, he came at me with swords aiming for my neck. I just kept my head down, waiting until he was close enough to…

_Now!_

My finger twitched and flicked a button on the hilt of the dagger. In an instant, all time in the area around me, catching Kaiten off guard as he slid through the air in super slow motion.

"Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaatttttt tttttthhhhhheeeeee hhhhhheeeeeellllllllllll-" he drew out, slow as could be.

"This one is slow-down," I explained. "I can also speed time up, stop someone's time entirely, and even if you did land a hit on me, I could reverse it as if nothing had happened."

"Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaatttttt iiiiiissssss-"

"It's the Dagger of Time, straight out of the Prince of Persia series. Brilliant games really."

As Kaiten hung in the air, I took control of the situation by grabbing his swords out of his hands and throwing them aside. Time was moving so slowly for him that there was nothing he could do to stop me.

"I'm not done yet!"

Keeping my momentum going, I leapt up into the air. I focused for a moment and a pair of translucent blue angel wings came out of my back. I could already feel my control over my flying increasing, which I'd need in a moment. "And here are Lloyd's wings from Tales of Symphonia."

I clipped the Dagger of Time onto my belt to leave my hands free. I stretched my arms open in a spread eagle as two new swords formed in my hands. In my left was a two-pronged sword that looked like it was made up of gels and concentrated energy. "And this is the plasma sword from Halo." In my right hand, I created a sword that was almost as tall as I was and almost as wide. "And why the hell not? Cloud's buster sword from Final Fantasy VII."

Below me, Kaiten landed, keeping his head up at me. I must have been speaking too quickly for him to understand, but his gaze was focused more on me than his surroundings or my new weaponry. He knew what was going on.

_Not much time left,_ I told myself. _I'm almost out of sand._

"Here we go!" I called out as I flew down in an arc.

_Don't hold back._

Kaiten looked on in shock as the buster sword came in and hit him dead-on in the chest as I flew by. The impact broke through his armor, splintering pieces in all directions. Next, the plasma sword swung, tearing into his chest, severing his upper torso. I finished it off by swinging once more from behind with both swords at the same time. They cut Kaiten clean in two. His body parts fell to the floor, just as time returned to normal.

Finally, I won.

I nearly collapsed out of sheer elation. With the battle over, I disintegrated all three weapons, as well as my wings. I let out a victorious laugh for a moment, amazed that I had survived.

I was exhausted and just wanted to go back to take a nice long nap after this. My body ached all over and I was sweaty as hell. And I was hungry. I'd have to get something to eat somewhere. Now where was the closest place to get some pancakes?

I walked off through the field, stretching my tired arms behind my head, still wearing a victorious smile.

"It seems I underestimated you."

My eyes shot open and I stopped in mid-step. I could only pause for a few moments before I turned around. God must have really hated me because Kaiten was standing, in one, solid piece, where I had cut him down just seconds before.

"What…how the hell did-"

"I'm a soul, dumbass," Kaiten sneered. "I don't have a real body. You can't cut me no matter how many times you try."

"Are you here to fight more?"

"No, we've fought enough," he conceded. "But just remember, this was my victory."

"Yours?" I asked, completely puzzled. "I cut you in half. How did you win?"

"Sometimes, you need to take your victories in whatever form you can," Kaiten said. He gazed at me with a bowed head, making his smile seem all the more demonic. "Goodbye, 'Host'."

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

But Kaiten only snapped his fingers.

--

The world inside my mind faded and reality came back. My head felt fuzzy, but I felt alright.

_What was that all about?_ I wondered to myself. _That arrogant freak! The next time he pulls my in like that I'm going to…wait, what was I doing here again?_

"Shock!"

"…Ah, shi-"

The blast of lightning so powerful it could rip through a tank shot out of Beatrix's sword and tore through my chest. It exploded upon contact and threw me back, bounding along the platform at the highest level of Cleyra. I came to rest in a small patch of grass, looking on as the Alexandrian General attacked Zidane and Freya. Vivi stood back, glancing back at me, then Beatrix, unsure whether to help the others or me first.

My world swirled into darkness as I blacked out and lost consciousness.

"Kaiten…you asshole…"

--

Well, there you have it. I wanted to experiment with battle scenes a little and think I've found what I was looking for. More specifically, the second scene. I just did the first half of the battle with music as a side project because I wanted to experiment after reading Tristram Shandy. I guess my English major is showing itself again. Hehe. XP

Let me know what you thought of the second half of the battle please. I think it's a better way than what I've been doing and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. It's fine if you didn't like it of course—I can always use constructive criticism. I know it was long, but I had to get some points out so that I could use them later on in the storyline.

Well, I'm off to not updating for another few months. T.T

…Sometimes, I hate my classes.


	8. I Am NOT A CrossDresser

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's note: Ok, I know it now takes me forever to update considering my workload and my social life, so I'm going to try to write slightly smaller chapters so I can update more often. These won't be drastically smaller since I have a problem with updating a chapter with less than 5000 words in it (even though this chapter just barely passes). It's just too short, you know? But, I figure it's better to get Shattered Mind in small doses than none at all, right? Besides, for the next few chapters, the timing works out better in the smaller doses I'm planning.

Oh, and to clear something up, the pod room when they get on the Red Rose after they warp is different from in the game because I thought the set up in the game was a bit odd. It's my story, so I can change it if I want to. So there. XP

Chapter 8: I Am NOT A Cross-Dresser!

XXXXXXXX

"Trevor! Come on, don't die now!"

"Commander! Get up!"

I was pushed onto my side and at first, only one thing went through my mind. I wanted to heave.

"Hey, enough laying around!" came the first voice again. I blinked a few times, clearing away the initial haze from my eyes and saw Dan standing over me. "Geez, about time!"

"Wha…?" I muttered, my mind still foggy. "What happ-"

"Beatrix just escaped," Dan explained. "She took the crystal and headed up to the Red Rose!"

"What?" I blurted out.

"Drink this," Dan said. He offered me a potion, which I took with a shaky hand, downing the contents. "Your friends didn't last too long after you fell."

I sat up, with Gre's help. Zidane and the others were being helped up with the soldiers from Dan's defense line outside the cathedral. Alexandria hadn't bothered to attack any of them, but since they had the crystal, they had no need to. The Black Mages stood at the edge of the defense perimeter and were withdrawing one by one by warping into the sky.

"No…" I let out at first. I stumbled awkwardly at first, still weak from Beatrix's attack, trying to stop the Black Mages. We needed them in order to get to the Red Rose and stop Brahne.

"Guys, we're following them!" Zidane cried out. "Get to the Red Rose and stop Beatrix!"

Zidane stood up and quickly made his way to one of the warping Black Mages. Just as the multi-colored orb formed above the Black Mage's head, Zidane jumped up and took its place. He faded away into the orb and it streaked away into the sky above, heading to the enormous red ship above.

"He's gone," Vivi said sadly. He kept his gaze up, watching Zidane fade away in the distance.

"I have failed my country," Freya said suddenly. "Burmecia is gone."

"Freya?" I asked. This wasn't the time to be lamenting.

"…But I refuse to fail Cleyra!" Freya said hotly. With teeth bared, she charged towards a warping Black Mage and slashed open its chest, taking its place in its orb. She quickly followed Zidane.

"Commander, what do we do?" Gre asked with only Vivi and myself left. I turned and saw him standing with all the other Burmecians and Cleyrans, looking at me like I had some magic answer to give.

Why were they looking at me like that? Their situation was hopeless. Any second now, Brahne would unleash Odin's fury on Cleyra. The energy would be so massive that it would burn the tree down to a hole in the ground in mere seconds. Why did it have to be me with the answers? Why me?

My anger spiked. "GOD DAMMIT!" I twisted and pulled out my short swords, driving them into the closest two Black Mages at once. They seemed to look at the blades sticking out of their chests like they would a stain on their shirt. Or at least they did, until I released a Pulse on both of them.

"Vivi, go!" I ordered.

"Uh, um… Alrighty," Vivi said nervously. He walked up to the nearest warp pod, pausing for a second to compose himself, then jumped in and headed up.

I turned back to face the soldiers behind me—

"Stay here. We'll fix it."

—Before jumping backwards into an orb of my own. If felt a strong tingling feeling all over my body as I entered and phased into—what I assumed was—pure energy.

"Why the hell is this happening?" I asked myself as I sped away towards the Red Rose. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

XXXXXXXX

High above Cleyra, Brahne sat, overlooking the city as the air of battle left. Dozens of warp pods drifted back up to the ship. They were a sight to behold, but Brahne only cared about two things: getting that crystal, and testing out her new weapon. Kuja said the Eidolons were a force of unstoppable power that dwarfed all other weapons and soldiers. Considering how strong the Black Mages were, that said something.

"Your highness," announced a soldier from behind the fat queen. "General Beatrix has returned with the crystal."

"Then get her in here!" Brahne yelled, acting like a greedy child in a toyshop.

Beatrix made her way into the balcony and glanced down over the edge. Only minutes before, the Black Mages marched up the tree, killing everything in sight. Beatrix sighed thinking about it. Her soldiers would have been enough to take the peaceful city. Why did the queen insist on using such barbarous tools as the Black Mages? It was like she was going on this murderous rampage just to show how strong Alexandria had become.

"Beatrix!" Brahne snapped, slapping her large fan down on her armrest. "Where is it?"

"My apologies your highness," Beatrix addressed respectfully. She pulled out the glimmering crystal fragment and handed it over. Brahne snatched it quickly and held it up, looking through the translucent red with wonder.

"Finally," she said. "With this I can…"

Brahne trailed off suddenly, realizing something was wrong. "No… I still need one more. Beatrix! Go find it for me!"

"Yes your majesty," Beatrix said with a reluctant bow.

Brahne pulled out a small, black orb. Smoke twisted inside of it like a dark cloud, creating a dark warmth in its user's hands.

Beatrix felt herself shutter as she passed it on her way out. She knew about as much as the next person about Eidolons, but she did understand that using them would bring horrible consequences. Not just for the queen, but for all of Alexandria.

She tried to think nothing of it, and headed for her quarters.

"Now that the Eidolons have been extracted from Garnet, they're all mine to control!" the queen announced excitedly.

One of her bodyguards looked nervously at the orb in the queen's hands. "Your highness… does that mean that thing came from your daughter?"

"My 'daughter' broke the law and had to be punished. I have no use for her now," Brahne answered cruelly. "She is to be executed for treason when we arrive back to Alexandria."

"But… she's your daughter! Surely you—"

"SILENCE!" Brahne yelled. The soldier backed against the wall from fear of the queen's domineering force. "Now, to see if Kuja was right about this." She held the Dark Matter orb above her head and awakened its hidden powers.

"Odin, Dark Horseman! Awaken and obey my command!"

XXXXXXXX

Our warp pods finally came to a stop after entering a portal in the rear of the ship. Several rows of large cauldrons were set up and caught the pods. Black Mages stepped out of each as they warped in, then exited the room. My guess was that they were heading to some storage room like they had been programmed. They probably wouldn't notice us as we made our way through the ship.

As my warp pod dissolved, the tingling over my body stopped. As my body phased into existence again, I quickly jumped out of the holding cauldron. I looked around for any soldiers who might spot me, but I only saw Black Mages, who didn't seem to mind ignoring me for now.

"Hey, you guys here?" I called out.

"Right here," came Zidane's voice. He jumped out of the cauldron to my left in a single bound and landed next to me. "Are you feeling alright Trevor?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I answered. "My arm is kind of numb from the ride, but I'm fine."

"I meant with the wound Beatrix gave you," he said, being seriously concerned. "If you keep getting wounded there, you're lung might stop working. Magic wouldn't be able to heal it after a while."

"I'll be fine," I said, unsure if I was. All I could think about now was getting out of this dark room and finding some dim bulb of hope at stopping Brahne from destroying Cleyra. I still had a promise to keep them safe to uphold.

"Freya, Vivi!" Zidane said. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," Vivi said. He brushed his way awkwardly, stepping underneath the larger Black Mages as he walked to us.

"We need to hurry," Freya said, jumping over a row of Black Mages and almost crashing into me. I stepped back once to give us more room.

"Okay, now we need to find Beatrix and stop her doing whatever she's going to do," Zidane said.

"You do know how difficult that's going to be, right?" I reminded him. "This may be a luxury airship, but it's filled to the brim with soldiers and Black Mages. One wrong move and we'll be thrown over the side."

"We'll have to move carefully," Freya said. "A small, mobile team. Trevor and Vivi might need to stay behind, but Zidane and I should be able to sneak through to find Beatrix."

"And then what?" I challenged. "You think two can fight her alone? She's beaten all of us senseless! Twice! We need to find disguises."

"And where do you propose we find disguises?" Freya snapped.

Before I could suggest we skin a Black Mage and wear its hide, an Alexandrian soldier came into the room and saw us conversing.

"Hey, who are you?" she asked. "Sound the alarm! We—"

Freya stopped the call for help by launching herself into the soldier, pressing her against the wall and knocking her out in one fluid move.

"Wow," Vivi said as we all watched on.

"My thoughts exactly," Zidane added. He was probably thinking the same thing as me and made a note never to give Freya a surprise birthday party. She'd knock out half the guests before she even realized there was a cake present.

"Now we have a disguise," she announced. "Does this work for everyone?"

Zidane didn't seem impressed. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "That's a woman's armor. And there's only one of them. You're the only woman here Freya. This armor won't fit you."

"Maybe not, but I think we can still make it work." Freya said confidently. "We just need someone to don it and sneak around."

Her gaze slowly turned to me. Zidane and Vivi did the same and I quickly became uncomfortable with the situation.

"Um, guys? What are you thinking?"

XXXXXXXX

"You do know I'm going to kill all of you for this, right?"

Somehow, for some reason, the others had convinced me out of my armor and into this one. I was just lucky that the armor included leggings and sleeves, so it wasn't completely effeminate. Otherwise, I'd have to wear the bathing suit-esque armor and become as bad a cross-dresser as Kuja. At least I wasn't willingly wearing women's clothing.

"Don't worry about it, we won't judge you," Zidane said. "You might want to do something about your bust size though. If it's too loose, you're going to be bouncing all over the place."

"And I'm _so_ telling Dagger about that comment Zidane," I glared.

"Enough, we don't have time," Freya said. "We spent enough time getting you into these. Besides, this is the fastest and easiest way of getting the crystal back from Beatrix."

"Fine," I sighed in defeat. "Just keep my things safe, alright? I'll be right back."

I was just glad I was able to still wear pants and my shirt underneath to keep me from feeling completely emasculated. I put on the helmet and kept the visor low. My long hair flowing out the back of the helmet probably would make me look like a woman, and the low visor hid my face. I could be out and back in minutes.

Then I could kill Zidane.

"Don't worry Trevor, we won't tell anyone about your weird habits!" Zidane called out as I left the room.

"I am NOT a cross-dresser!" I yelled back, seriously considering mauling him for a second.

I was met with a cold breeze of wind as I left the room and headed into the open walkway. I reminded myself that getting the crystal was next to impossible. I looked down over the railing and saw that Cleyra was still alright. Not a branch had been knocked out of place. I sighed a breath of ease and continued down the ship.

I tried walking as carefully as I could down the walkways, one foot in from of the other, but I wasn't used to it and with the added weight of the plate mail armor, it wasn't easy. A pair of Alexandrian soldiers passed me by and raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't seem to care enough to stop and investigate me. They must have still been reveling in their recent victory.

Good thing for big distractions.

After several minutes of walking down barren corridors, I came to a balcony overlooking the rear of the ship. I saw the massive propellers spinning slowly as the Red Rose circled around Cleyra. More importantly, in a small platform designed to look like a luxury vestibule sat the big, ugly, fatass queen of Alexandria. This was only my first time really seeing her, but it was enough to make me want to vomit. She looked like she put on clown makeup one day and forgot to take it off.

Beatrix was nowhere to be found. However, Brahne was putting away a gleaming red rock into a box at her feet. That must have been the crystal.

_Dammit. Too late,_ I thought. Then I noticed something in her hands that really started me into a panic.

Brahne held the Dark Matter that she extracted from Dagger up high, apparently astonished with its beauty. In the excitement of saving Cleyra, I had nearly forgotten about Dagger. By now, she, Steiner and Marcus had been captured and were being held in Alexandria dungeon.

"SILENCE!" Brahne yelled suddenly. She lowered the Dark Matter before herself to summon Odin and destroy Cleyra. I gripped the railing in front of me tightly, desperately looking for a way to get to her to stop her, but I was standing in a dead end. There was nothing I could do.

"Now, to see if Kuja was right about this. Odin, Dark Horseman! Awaken and obey my command!"

"…No," I muttered.

"NO!" came another voice.

As a beam shot into the sky to summon the Dark Horseman, I saw a soldier of Alexandria rush into the room and quickly dispatched the other soldiers. He jumped in front of Brahne and put a sword against her throat to keep her sitting. He was wearing a clean pressed jacket and looked like he could have been a respectable officer.

"Hey, it's that guy!" I quickly realized. The same man I had encountered in the tree.

"What's he doing here?"

XXXXXXXX

Captain William Delores stood before his queen, resting his blade against her neck and committing the ultimate treason. He had tried to come aboard the Red Rose while the battle was still going on in order to stop Brahne from her assault, willing to do whatever it took to stop her.

"Call him off!" he demanded.

Brahne glared at Delores with venom in her eyes. "You DARE give me an order?" she barked. "I will have you tortured and executed for this!"

"I don't care. Call off your beast!"

Brahne gripped the Dark Matter in her chubby hands, trying not to show them shake. She thought about using Odin to kill Delores for a moment, but she would probably die in the process. Eidolons were not good anti-personnel weapons.

The summoning was almost complete. The sky darkened and the clouds carried a red lining. Brahne knew Delores didn't have it in him to kill her. He was too loyal. "Delores, why are you doing this?" Brahne hesitated. "You had a good life, good noble standing. You could have been a general!"

"No more stalling." Delores leaned in, keeping his sword against Brahne's throat. "I am loyal to the crown, but I am more loyal to my family."

In a flash, Delores raked his saber against Brahne's cheek, leaving a deep cut and making the queen howl in pain. He snatched the Dark Matter out of Brahne's hands and stood against the railing overlooking the tree.

"My son is down there!" Delores yelled over the roar behind him.

Delores turned and saw Odin ride into the world from the sky on his six-legged horse Sleipner. Both were armored as heavy knights. Odin carried an enormous spear at his side, big enough to crush a tank.

"Odin!" Delores shouted, holding the Dark Matter up high. "Do not touch Cleyra! If you must, destroy the sands outside the tree!"

Odin glanced at Delores and understood his new orders. He pulled his arm back and threw his spear into the sands away from Cleyra. It exploded on contact, sending flames and energy in all directions, but did nothing to the city. As the spear pulled back and returned to its master, there was only a dark hole left in the sand where it had been burned.

His job done, Odin rode back into the sky and disappeared, returning to sleep inside the Dark Matter.

Delores let out a sigh of relief. He looked down at the orb in his hand and saw the clouds inside swirl again.

"You traitor!" Brahne growled as she got to her feet. She held one hand to her cheek to slow the bleeding. "You BASTARD!"

"A traitor, perhaps, but my conscience is clear," Delores explained. "My son is alive."

"Give me that!" Brahne demanded as she rushed at Delores.

"No."

With a soft lob, Delores tossed the Dark Matter over the side of the ship. It fell to the ground below and out of sight. Brahne screamed as if fell over the side and beyond her reach. Now, she couldn't touch Cleyra. She had only brought the Dark Matter, not thinking something like this would happen. The other summoning jewels were back in Alexandria.

"You will pay for this Delores," Brahne said. "You will live for several more decades, and you will feel agonizing, unending pain each and every day."

Several more guards rushed into the room after hearing Brahne scream.

"Arrest him!" Brahne screamed. "Arrest him and beat him all the way back to Alexandria! I want this traitor to suffer!"

Delores offered no resistance as the other soldiers took his sword and placed his arms into wrist-cuffs behind his back. He knew he had ruined the rest of his life, but he couldn't help the smile on his cheek as he thought about the lives, or rather, life, that he had saved.

XXXXXXXX

"Geez, that guy's nuts," I said to myself as the captain was lead off by the guards. As soon as the action was all over though, I felt my knees buckle and I fell to the floor. I started softly laughing out of relief. Cleyra was alive. That man had saved him.

Still, he was going to be tortured. I made a note to save him after we got Dagger out of Alexandria. He deserved that much at least.

_Dagger!_

"Right. We need to get to Alexandria," I said.

I turned back and started running down the corridors again, retracing my steps towards the teleportation room.

I walked as quickly as I could, but I forgot how much I needed to stay in disguise. I kept a hand on my helmet as it threatened to fall backward as I stepped quickly.

_Dammit, which way was it?_ I pondered as I came to an intersection. How long had it taken me to get this far out? How many forks in the road had I crossed? I was just heading in one direction, hoping to get to the end of the ship.

"Where are you going so fast?" came a woman's voice down the hall. I saw an Alexandrian soldier walking towards me. "You should be heading to the meeting hall. I heard they're serving Alexia wine."

I didn't say anything. Even in imitation, there was no way my voice could pass for a woman's.

"They also have that Portras stuff, but that's swill in my opinion. Alexia's the way to go," the soldier continued. "Come on, let's get going!"

Before I could protest, she grabbed my arm and started pulling me along. I could only pretend I was the big silent type and walked along, unsure how else to react. If I did something out of the ordinary, she could sound the alarm and I'd have more soldiers crawling over me than shoppers at a Black Friday sale.

…Man I had to get out of this armor.

"I'm just glad Queen Brahne found the Black Mages and had us start expanding our borders like this," the soldier explained, obviously too full of herself to see that I didn't care. "Now Alexandria can get a surplus and we'll get more than a soldier's wage. And we're not even losing that much. Just a few soldiers here and there."

My earlier instinct to ignore this girl and keep going on my way was quickly pushed out of the way by the new thought to break her nose.

"I just wish we didn't have to be on the same ship than those things. The Black Mages, you know? I mean, they spend all their time down there near their warp pods, but they're hideous. Still, it's better they die in battle than us, right?"

Alright! Screw subtlety! I'm hurting her.

"You say the teleportation room is down this hall?" I said, turning to face her.

"Huh? What the hell's wrong with your voice?" she asked, stopping in front of me.

"Thanks."

Before the soldier could call out for help, I grabbed the hilt of the broadsword I had taken with the armor and slammed the pommel into her nose. There was a sharp cracking sound as she fell and grabbed her face, screaming in pain into her hands. I sheathed the sword again and ran as fast as I could down the hall.

Two turns down the dim halls later, I found two rooms at a dead-end. One door said "Storage Room" and the other said "Pod Room". I took the latter, slamming the door behind me as I rushed in. I threw off the armor as fast as I could, revealing my new red t-shirt beneath it.

"Back so soon?" Zidane said. I could feel another bad joke coming on, but I cut him off.

"We need to get out of here!" I said. I took out the broadsword and slammed it against the doorway, jamming it shut.

"Where's the crystal?" Freya asked. "You did manage to get it, right?"

"Brahne has it. It's in a safety box or something. I didn't have a chance. But we—"

"Trevor, do you have any idea what that crystal can do?" Freya snapped. "I knew I should have gone out!"

"Listen to me!" I shouted. "We need to get to Alexandria, now!"

Zidane looked curious. "Why? Did something happen?"

"Two things," I started. "One, I knocked out a soldier."

"You did what?" Freya cried out.

"Well, I didn't knock her out so much as break her nose and leave her for dead."

Freya's face twisted painfully, like she had just stepped on a nail. A very large nail.

"And the second thing?" Zidane said quickly, handing me my chain mail and short swords.

"Dagger's been captured, listed as a traitor, and is set to be executed when Brahne arrives in Alexandria."

"What?" he shouted. "We have to save her!"

"Dagger's in trouble?" Vivi asked innocently.

Suddenly, loud shouting came from the other side of the door.

"He went in here! This way!"

They started slamming at the door, but the sword I mashed into it kept it closed.

"Alright, everyone in the pods then," Zidane ordered. "We can probably use them again and get to Alexandria before Brahne does."

"Are you sure about this?" Freya asked.

"It's better than staying here," I reminded her.

"We need to save Dagger!" Vivi insisted once more. I knelt down and gave him a boost into one of the cauldrons.

"There you go."

"Let's go guys! To Alexandria!" Zidane said. He and Freya were able to jump into their cauldrons in a single bound. I had to climb up and fall in, but it worked all the same.

"I'm coming Dagger!" Zidane said, almost as our battle cry.

Soon, I felt my entire body turn into energy again and condense into a small orb and fly away. The tingling came back over my body and I could see everything around me. Just as the four of us left through the portal outside the Red Rose, the Alexandrians burst into the pod room. They only looked around in confusion, not sure where we went. Hopefully, that would give us at least a few minutes before they figured out how we had escaped.

We soared through the clouds and I watched as the mist swirled beneath me. We were getting into the more serious parts of the storyline, and things were going to be getting a lot more dangerous from here on out.

Things were finally getting interesting.

XXXXXXXX

Unfortunately, things were far more dangerous than Trevor realized. Deep within his mind, the scars of his battle with Kaiten remained.

The hole into his innermost mind that Kaiten created emitted small amounts of energy. It glowed a dark purple and like the most serious mental problems, couldn't be repaired.

Kaiten had decided to investigate it further, mostly out of concern for what it would do to him if it got out of hand. The dark room was small, at least as far as Kaiten could tell. He didn't go out of range of the lighted area. The burning house and blood-soaked field was creepy enough.

The Terran levitated above the ground by a few feet, looking for anything to help him identify the situation.

"And I thought Aitris and Borrik had problems," he muttered. He floated a few more feet before he found the spot he was looking for.

Beneath him were two box-shapes sticking out of the blood. One of them was a book, the other was still covered in blood, but Kaiten assumed it was another book. The first book was designed to look very archaic. It was a leather cover with Celtic knots tied into it. Several lines and knots along it glowed. Kaiten guessed that that's where Trevor had gotten his power.

"And if that's the case," Kaiten thought, looking at the book. "What are you? He pulled you forth himself, so that has to mean something."

He turned to look at the other book, still caked in blood. "And what are you? And for that matter, why are you buried so deeply?"

Kaiten hovered a few feet higher, getting a bad feeling from the whole place.

"What has that moron pushed away so completely down here?"

XXXXXXXX

Okay, that's another chapter done. Not too long, I know, but not too short I hope. The timing fits better at least, and if my returned enthusiasm for writing stays with me, then the next few chapters (2 or 3 at least) should be able to come out the same way.

Also, I've had an idea in the interest of maintaining my side stories, the ATE's. For every 9 reviews I get, I'll write a new one, even if I wasn't planning on it, to fit side by side with some scene in the following chapter. Why 9 reviews? Why not ten? Because that's what they'd expect me to do. You gotta stay a few steps ahead of them, you know? :3

Also, it's Final Fantasy 9. That's probably a better answer anyway.

Well, here's to hoping my next few chapters come out smoothly. Oh, and that I pass all my finals. XP


	9. The Princess, Recovered

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: So, apparently my plan to write shorter chapters and update more often didn't work. Probably because of a certain someone I met and have been going out with recently (not to blame her of course). But, I don't spend as much time as I'd like to writing, I'm afraid. Oh well. At least I'm doing something, I suppose. Hopefully I'll find a way to get around this so that everyone can be happy.

And I'm sure you'll enjoy this chapter. I certainly did. :D

Chapter 9: The Princess, Recovered

XXXXXXXX

"Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into," came Steiner's gruff voice.

"Me?" Marcus called back. "I was just following you guys. I had no idea this would happen!"

"Silence! Because of you, I've been listed as a criminal and the Princess has been captured. I knew we shouldn't have helped you!"

"Whatever man," Marcus sighed.

It had been a rough few days for the rusty knight. After the Princess and he had escaped Lindblum and traveled through South Gate, they had run into Marcus, one of Zidane's buddies from Tantalus, the thieving/acting troupe. Marcus was on a mission to steal an item called Supersoft in order to save Blank. It was the only item that was strong enough to cure the petrifaction of Evil Forest and save his brother.

Because Blank had sacrificed himself to save everyone else, Dagger felt responsible and offered to help Marcus, much to Steiner's apprehension. However, after arriving in Alexandria so Marcus could travel to the Evil Forest, the three of them were captured and thrown in prison. Marcus was arrested for theft, Steiner was declared guilty by association, and Dagger had been taken to a room deep below Alexandria Castle, where she had Eidolons extracted from her body. This was what supplied Brahne with the weapons to attack Cleyra, like Odin.

Now, the two men were trapped in a hanging cage in the middle of the massive prison, and all Steiner could think about was how everything had lead to this point.

_This is horrible,_ Steiner thought. _If this is what I'm going through, then how is the Princess faring? She must be rescued!_

"The time has come to escape!" Steiner said suddenly. "We must find and rescue the princess!"

"How?" Marcus asked, bringing Steiner back to reality.

"I… don't know." Steiner said.

"Wait… I have an idea!" Marcus said suddenly. Steiner eyed him suspiciously and turned to face him.

"What?"

Marcus moved to the bars and grabbed hold. "Grab the bars and start shifting your weight."

Steiner didn't know what the thief was scheming, but he didn't have any better ideas, so he complied, grabbed the bars opposite Marcus.

"And push!" Marcus called out as he pulled. Steiner pushed all the weight in his hefty and armored frame. Amazingly, the cage moved.

"What the-" Steiner let out. Maybe this idea could work.

"Don't stop," Marcus told him as he shifted his weight forward. The cage moved again, swinging the other direction.

The two prisoners continued their effort, pushing their cage more and more. It took time, but it soon began swinging violently back and forth, nearing the edge of the room. They knew that if they could just smash the cage into the platform on the far side of the room, they would be free.

As the cage fell for its one last swing, Marcus tensed himself up.

"Brace for impact!"

Steiner held onto the bars as tightly as he could as the cage swung back. At the last second, the cage slammed into the platform, stopping in an instant and sending Steiner falling backwards. He hit his head against the gate of the prison and broke the lock open.

"Nicely done, Marcus complimented as he swung the door open, disregarding Steiner's condition.

The rusty knight simply dragged himself out of the cage and rose to his feet, rubbing his helmet where he had hit his head.

"I can't believe that worked," Steiner thought aloud. "I must talk to the Queen about Alexandria's prison architecture."

"Whatever. Now we can get out of here," Marcus reminded him.

There was, however, one problem. The escape had been effective, but noisy. And that noise alerted the guards.

"Prison break!" came a sudden cry from one of the patrols. "Two escapees on the third floor!"

"Time to go!" Marcus said, bolting towards the exit. He didn't bother to wait for Steiner.

"Hey, get back here!" Steiner said, chasing after his cellmate.

As luck would have it, the third floor was a good distance away from the guards. Steiner and Marcus had a clear shot to the exit and ran down the dark stone hallway until it spiraled upwards in a wide stairway. It opened into a large room at the top of the prison. Steiner had only been here a few times before on patrol.

"We're out!" the knight cried out. "This room leads out underneath Alexandria castle!"

"Then we're right next to Evil Forest," Marcus added. "I'm gonna go rescue my bro. Later."

"What? Where are you going?"

But Marcus didn't stop to explain. He just ran down the hall and left to rescue Blank from his petrified state.

"Why that ungrateful- huh?"

As Steiner paused, four Black Mage orbs swirled in through a window at the top of the room. They all landed near him and dissipated, releasing the four heroes from Cleyra.

"What are you doing here?"

XXXXXXXX

The ride from Cleyra had been long and tiring. It seemed the orbs worked by drawing energy from the passenger. The distance traveled, as well as the haste we made, drained a lot from us. I was just glad to collapse onto the ground when we finally landed in a small room at the bottom of a tower in Alexandria.

"What are you doing here?" came a familiar voice. I craned my head up from the floor and saw Steiner, staring wide-eyed at us.

"Steiner?" Zidane said as he jumped up. "Is this Alexandria?"

I had no idea how he could jump up like that. I just wanted to stay down and sleep.

"I have no time for your silly questions!" Steiner bellowed. Oh, how I missed that. "I must escape this wretched dungeon of Alexandria and rescue the princess!"

"Enough said! Let's go!"

Zidane ran by and gave me a hand up. I got to my feet as Freya and Vivi began running down the nearest corridor, exiting the prison.

'Why is everyone leaving me behind?" Steiner complained as he raced after us.

"Hurry up Rusty! Dagger's life is in danger!" Zidane called back.

"What are you talking about?" Steiner said, catching up with us.

"Its true!" Vivi defended. "Trevor heard her say it on the Red Rose."

"She's being charged with treason for stealing the Royal Alexandrian Pendant," I explained.

"…Is this really true?" Steiner said, apprehensive to believe us.

"Yes!" Zidane said, getting tired of the knight's questions. "We don't have long before Brahne arrives."

As we neared the end of the tunnel, the guards from the prison rounded the corner behind us and we catching up. They ran fast for girls in chainmail. We rushed out the doorway only to see-

"Marcus?" Zidane called out.

"Stand back, I'm closing the gate," the bandana-wearing thief instructed.

Vivi was the last one out. As soon as he was clear, Marcus pulled on a lever next to the doorway. A portcullis crashed down instantly, trapping the pursuing guards behind it.

"What are you doing here?" Zidane asked.

"It's a long story. I'm just here to get to Evil Forest so I can save Blank."

Images of the last time I saw Blank flashed through my mind. Blank had saved us from the petrifying forest after we rescued Dagger from it. He was a weird guy, but I respected him. It'd be good to see him again.

"Good luck," Zidane said. "We're going to find Dagger."

"Travel well," Freya said.

"God speed," I told him.

Marcus didn't waste any time and ran off down another hall. I could only hope he was successful and came back soon. Alexandria was teetering on a large-scale battle inside the castle and we'd need their help later.

"So there must really be a way to save Blank," Zidane wondered out loud.

"Wasn't he one of your brothers in Tantalus? Freya asked.

"Yeah. He saved us in Evil Forest…" Zidane trailed off.

"Hey, we don't have time for this," I said, impatiently inching towards the door to the courtyard. Let's get going.

"Right," Zidane agreed. "Search everywhere and find Dagger!"

I thought for a moment. We could search everywhere and look for Dagger without prior knowledge of where she was. Nothing wrong with that, except we might take too long searching in earnest and could allow Brahne enough time to beat us to Dagger.

Or, I could play the amazing-college-student card.

"Guys, I think I might know where Dagger is," I said.

"What?" Steiner said. "In this entire castle? Not even I know all the rooms and halls built and I work here!"

"I found something once in an architecture class," I explained, creatively stretching the truth.

Vivi just cocked his head to the side, confused.

"It's a class where I study buildings."

"Oh."

"Anyway… there's a bit of space being wasted in one of the northern support spans," I said, completely making up the terminology, but what did these guys know? I was the amazing college student. "I think there's something there. Its way too big to be used as just a support beam."

"What are you saying?" Steiner asked. "That the castle has secret passages?"

"Basically, yes."

"Impossible! I'm the head of castle security! If there were any hidden paths inside Alexandria, I would know!"

"How big is the wasted space Trevor?" Zidane asked. He didn't mind cutting Steiner off.

"Large enough to hold an airship, were it standing vertically." I had no idea how accurate that was, of course.

"And where is it?"

"Behind the queen's bed chambers."

"What? You intend to break into her highness's bedroom?"

"Rusty, what do you care about more: respecting a queen that had you imprisoned, or saving the Princess' life?"

That shut him up for a moment. Steiner bit his lip as he contemplated the consequences of his actions.

"Very well," he settled. "I will lead the way, but don't touch anything! I don't want your thieving hands wondering in this building!"

"Fine, whatever. Just get on with it."

I wanted to say, "Yes, get on with it!", then finish up with a few more Monty Python jokes, but it really didn't seem the time.

Steiner was true to his word. He led us through the grand halls of the castle, up the walkways and up to the sleeping quarters. Why a building needed ceilings that high though, I had no idea.

"There is the queen's room," Steiner said, pointing at the most ornate door in the hall.

"Well it's certainly tall enough, but is it wide enough?" I joked. Steiner shot me a death glare and I waved an apology.

Inside was the largest bed I had ever seen. My bed back on campus was easily only a fifth that size. There were also expensive paintings and candelabras hanging from the walls, keeping the room tastefully decorated and well lit. Every inch of the room was sure to be fit for a queen.

"Anyone have a torch?"

"Trevor, knock it off!" Freya chastised.

"There has to be something here we can try," Zidane said. "Trevor, where's this support beam thing you were talking about?"

I looked around for a moment and saw the fireplace at the other end of the room.

"Over there," I said. "There must be a door that we can open, or something."

Steiner thought differently. "There is no door and there is no passage! We must stop wasting our time here and find the princess!"

"Its not like we have any better options Rusty," Zidane cut in. "If Trevor says there's something here, then I say we trust him."

"What makes you think this troublemaker is correct about this?"

"He was right about everything in Cleyra, so I say we trust him now."

"Thanks Zidane," I said.

"No problem."

"This fool?" Steiner yelled. "We nearly lost the princess in Dali because of him!"

"Hey, I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You and your excuses, you-"

"Um, guys?"

Our "conversation" was stopped short as Vivi called out to us. We all looked over and saw him standing below a candelabra glowing purple.

"This isn't normal, is it?" he asked.

Curious, Zidane approached the purple flame and grabbed the stem of the candelabra, pulling on it. A loud grinding sound echoed for a moment before the entire wall collapsed and fell back, revealing a secret passage.

"Told ya," I said, oh-so-smugly to the confounded knight.

"Enough arguing," Freya ordered. "Lets go."

We walked into the dark passage one at a time. Torches lines the moldy gray stones that made up the walls, keeping the place looking more like a decrepit torture chamber than anything else. The hallway made a quick turn downward into a large spiral staircase, leading down so far I could barely see the bottom.

"Wow. It's so big!" Vivi said, listening to his voice echo off the stones.

"This must be older than the castle itself," Freya noted.

"I can't believe this is here," Steiner said.

"It looks like you were right," Zidane said to me. "Think Dagger's down there?"

"I hope so," I said honestly.

As we descended, the smell of the mold on the walls got worse. I had to hold my nose at many parts as the stench began to overwhelm my senses. You'd think that the castle janitor could clean this place up everyone once in a while.

As we descended, a large platform appeared below, resting at the very bottom of the staircase. It looked like it was just large enough to park a jet fighter on. One path led out even deeper under the foundations of the castle. Another path, opposite the first, led to a separate room.

"What's in there?" Vivi asked, pointing at the large doors

"It must be Dagger!" Zidane said excitedly. He broke away from the group and ran ahead. He burst through the door, smashing the old, weakened frames open. Inside was a sight none of us wanted to behold.

Dagger was lying unconscious on a pedestal on the far end of the room. The walls were bare and cold, but the dais around the princess was extravagantly designed. Runes and symbols that looked like they were straight out of Norse myth decorated the area for the dark rituals performed down here. If I didn't know there weren't any traps set up, I would have insisted on staying away from the intimidating spot, lest some type of Black Magic activate and blow me up.

Oh, and Zorn and Thorn were standing watch.

"What are you doing here?" asked Zorn, the annoying, little red jester.

"So meddlesome, you are! Mercy no more!" Thorn, his blue counterpart, added.

"What have you done with Dagger?" Zidane shouted at the jester twins. The two of them just looked confused.

"Dagger? Who is that?" Zorn asked Thorn.

"Know him, I do not," Thorn replied.

"What have you done to the princess?" Steiner bellowed, just as loud as Zidane.

"Enough prattling," Freya said, drawing her spear. "Stay on guard. They must be powerful if Brahne left them in charge down here."

I, however, had a different interpretation.

"Actually, they're not-"

"Vivi, charge up some fire spells," Freya ordered, taking the command again. "You two, get back here!" she yelled at Zidane and Steiner.

"You know, if we just-"

"You're right to be afraid of us," Zorn said with an annoying laugh.

"The queen's most powerful servants, we are!" Thorn accompanied.

"We hold control over the powers of Flare and Meteor!" Zorn finished.

The others gripped their weapons as the jester twins cackled. I just stood in place, unimpressed with the current drama. True, Flare and Meteor were some of the strongest magic in the game and there was reason to be concerned with it, but in all my playing Final Fantasy IX, I've never seen the jesters finished channeling the spells to actually cast them.

As they settled down, Zorn handed Thorn turned to each other. Zorn passed a magic seal over Thorn and the latter began casting a spell. My guess was that he had to release it for Thorn to do any magic inside the castle. What they didn't seem to know was how much it hindered them.

As Freya told everyone to spread out to give them more targets, I made my way forward, calmly approaching Thorn. As he cast his spell, he looked up just in time to see my land a kick to his stomach. The blow landed hard enough to pick his small, frail body off the ground and stop him from concentrating. He landed in a heap.

"No more Yoda-talk!" I shouted.

"Thorn!" Zorn cried out, half in concern, half in horror. Thorn was left holding his stomach and gasping like a fish out of water.

"Quickly Thorn! Release Flare for me!" Zorn said. Again, all Thorn could do was barely get enough air. His face was turning blue, which started to match his blue outfit.

"Um… Thorn?"

"Good job Trevor," Freya said as everyone else circled the jesters with me. "Finish the other one off quickly."

I made a threatening step to Zorn, but he grabbed his blue-in-the-face brother and dragged him out of the room.

"Damn you!" he called back. "We'll get you for this!"

I didn't bother to stop the jesters as they ran away—well, one ran, one was dragged by the feet—and opted to run with the others to Dagger's side. Zidane had already beaten us there and cradled Dagger in his arms at the altar.

"Dagger, it's me!" he said to her. Judging by his tone, it seemed he was barely keeping it together. "Dagger!"

"Oh, no..."

"P-PRINCESS! NOOOOO!" Steiner bellowed. He practically started bawling. "Princess, please forgive me! I don't deserve to be a knight! I don't deserve to live!"

Fortunately, Freya was the smart one of our group and calmed the group by taking Dagger's pulse.

"Her heart's still beating."

"Yeah. Alright…" Zidane decided. "Let's get her out of here."

The blonde thief kneeled down and lifted Dagger, hugging her close to his chest. He struggled as he stood again, walking slowly and straining himself with the tremendous burden, though I suspect it was mostly emotional strain than anything else.

"Zidane, do you need help?" I offered. "You look like you're going through a lot."

"I'm fine," he said, his voice dull and quiet.

"Are you sure? I can easily help if you need it."

Zidane turned to me. His eyes were sad and silent.

"Trevor, please, just let me do this much."

I didn't push it any further. "Alright," I nodded. "But we should hurry. Who knows when Brahne is going to get here?"

"We should head to the Queen's room," Steiner suggested. "The exit isn't far from there. We can be out of the castle in minutes."

"Sounds good," Zidane said. He picked up the pace and quickly walked out the door. We all followed behind him and made our way up the spiral staircase once again.

We walked in silence. Our footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell. Although we only had to walk about a hundred feet up, it seemed to take us a very long while. Dagger's state weighted heavily on all of us.

Once again, my mind turned to wondering about how the storyline would progress. Cleyra wasn't destroyed, so what else could change? Dagger might never wake up, or she might even die. I shouldn't have had to worry about these things. I should have been able to convince myself that everything was going to make it through alright and that we were all going to be just fine.

Now, I wasn't so sure.

We reached the top of the stairwell and crept back through the opened fireplace into the queen's chamber. Everything was as it should be. No Alexandrians in sight.

"I don't think anyone followed us." Freya said. She checked behind us as we all ran into the room. Zidane just stood in the middle of us all, still holding Dagger's limp frame. I tried to lighten the mood by making a friend out of a nemesis.

"Steiner, I have an idea," I told him with somewhat of a friendly tone. "There are still guards in the castle, so when we charge out of here, the two of us should be in front. You're strong and I'm agile, so we should be able to take out anyone who comes our way. Sound good to you?"

But Steiner didn't seem to hear any of it. He just walked with a slacked jaw in a stupor and came to the middle of the room.

"My queen…" he said. He started out quietly but his voice soon found its regular volume. "Why have you done this! I have devoted my whole life to serving you and the princess! Why did you harm her! Why!"

By the end of it, he was hopping up and down with rage.

"Steiner…" Zidane said, surprised as the rest of us at the knight's outburst.

"Zidane," Vivi called, tugging on the thief's pant leg. "Do you think she'll ever wake up?"

Zidane stared at Vivi for a moment, then wiped away his frown. "Of course," he said assuredly. "She's asleep because she's tired. That's all." He turned to the rest of us and asked. "I wanna let Dagger rest a little. Do you guys mind?"

He didn't get any complaints.

"Thanks."

Zidane carried Dagger over to a parlor couch on the wall close to the fireplace and kneeled beside her. He brushed back a strand of hair that fell in front of her face.

"If only I had gotten here sooner… I'm sorry."

"Zidane, its not your fault," I tried to assure him.

"But… she's like this—"

"Yes, and that's her mother's fault. You won't get anything done by beating yourself up."

Zidane didn't say anything. He just turned his head away and laid a hand next to Dagger's head.

"What happened to you?" Steiner asked. "You are not your usual self. Go on… Blame my incompetence! Tell me it is my fault!"

"No! I can't," Zidane said adamantly. "I… don't know what I feel right now. I can't even shed a tear."

Steiner was silent, as were the rest of us until I tried to speak again.

"Zidane, you—"

"There they are!"

We had only a moment of peace until Zorn and Thorn ran back into the room, followed by General Beatrix.

"There is no escape!" the jester twins mocked.

Beatrix walked in, confident as always and flaunting her dominance. She flicked her hair out of her face and glared at us, looking at us almost mockingly.

"Welcome back, Steiner. Where have you been all this time?" she taunted. "Don't tell me you have been enjoying the company of these scoundrels."

"What the hell!" Zidane shouted, suddenly enraged. "The only scoundrels around here are you and your fat queen!"

He jumped down from the couch's side and pulled out the Ogre. Everyone followed suit and drew our weapons, standing in front of Dagger, trying to defend the unconscious princess.

Beatrix didn't show any sign of danger. Why would she, considering how easily she beat us before?

"Fools like you will never learn." She said, slowly pulling her saber out of its sheath. She stood with a low guard and with the blade to the side, as if daring us to attack her. She stood her ground, just waiting for us to attack.

_Alright,_ I told myself. _Last Beatrix fight. If I can survive this, I'm done with them._

However, my excitement was short-lived.

"_Host_."

…_No,_ I thought. Everything else dulled for me. I remembered the last time Kaiten did anything and my chest started to hurt where Beatrix had struck me. _Kaiten, whatever it is, no._

"_That's not it. I—"_

_Save it! If you try anything, I'll just kick your ass again! Let me handle this!_

"_This is more important than some petty fight with the bitch_," he said._ "We need to talk,_ now_!_"

Before I could protest, I could feel Kaiten pulling me back into my mind. Everything faded into a white light and I soon found myself surrounded in the vast, blank room that was my mind. Kaiten was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit!" I shouted. "This is not the time Kaiten!"

"There is no better time than now," he said. I spun and saw him standing behind me.

"How did—"

"I've been looking around lately," he began. "Something's wrong with you."

"You're one to talk."

"I'm being serious!" he yelled, quite irritated. "Ever since we fought, you've been releasing an unstable amount of energy from your mind. Do you remember the book you touched in the lower room in the field of blood?"

My mind reeled back. There was a book, down there, underneath all the blood. When I touched it, it filled me with a power that let me equal myself to Kaiten. It felt good, but there was something ominous about it.

"I remember it. Why?"

"Because I think that you've repressed something. Something bad. Didn't you say you used to have anger problems?"

"Yeah, back when I was younger," I paused to ponder it for a moment, then looked back at Kaiten curiously. "Why?"

"I think it's releasing itself. If that's the case, then you're going to become as destructive as you used to be."

Images of the things I used to do back then flashed before me. The fights I'd get into, the teachers I'd piss off, the disappointed look in my father's eyes… I didn't want to relive any of it. I wasn't that person anymore.

_The old men did say they wanted to use my rage,_ I suddenly realized. Well, if it meant screwing up their plans, then I was all for it.

"So… do you have an idea?" I asked. "How do we stop it?"

"We need to combine powers," Kaiten explained. "A halfway point between total conversion, like when I take over your body."

"So we'll be controlling different parts of my body?" I asked, unsure how this could possibly work.

"You work defense and I'll work offence," came the suggestion. "When we were fighting, you had good reflexes, but you were hesitant in confronting me seriously. You might be able to hold back the bitch and give me an opening to attack."

Although the compliment was nice, it passed me by almost unnoticed. "Are you sure this could work?" I asked. "It doesn't sound very plausible."

"Just don't fight it when you feel part of your control go. I need you to trust me on this host."

I sighed, out of any other options. At any second, we were going to have to fight Beatrix one way or another. This way, we at least stood a chance of staying out of each other's way separately.

"Alright," I said fatally. "Let's do it."

XXXXXXXX

The room melded back into the faded browns and reds of the walls and carpets. Everyone was still here, prepared for battle as I had left them. I still felt in control, unlike the times Kaiten normally took over. But somehow, I felt stronger, like I could tear a car in half. The power was wonderful! Maybe it was simply excess adrenaline in my system, but Kaiten's idea showed some validity now.

"Now, prepare yourselves!" Beatrix said, shifting her stance forward, preparing to attack.

The others spread out, giving each other enough room to fight easily. Vivi stayed back next to Dagger, but the other three were out, waiting to fight her in the middle of the room.

I didn't have enough room to fight.

"Guys, stand back," I told them. "I've got this."

"Are you insane?" Zidane shot back. "She'll kill you!"

I walked forward, taking my place at the front of the line. "I said, I've got this."

"Trevor, are you—" Zidane started, but halted when he looked me in the eye.

"What?" I asked.

"Trevor… What's wrong with your eyes?"

I didn't know what Zidane was talking about, but I glanced at a mirror on the wall. My eyes were now striped with blood red and sky blue. Apparently, my appearance changed with Kaiten helping me.

"Don't worry," I said after a short moment. "I'll be fine."

Zidane nodded and he and the others backed off, giving the floor to me alone. I drew my short swords and stood in a ready stance.

"Alright bitch," I grinned at Beatrix. "It's our turn."


	10. Escape from Alexandria

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's note: So even though I don't update for a while, I can still get a whole bunch of reviews. You guys are great, you know that? For that, I'm trying to squeeze in more writing as much as I can into my schedule.

Chapter 10: Escape from Alexandria!

XXXXXXXX

I don't know if Beatrix wasn't at her best, if she was freaked out by my new "eye condition" or if I was just good, but so far, she hadn't been able to lay a hand on me. Her every swing was blocked, then countered by Kaiten, only for her to dodge it and fall back.

"Why didn't you die the last time we fought?" she demanded, backing away again.

"I dunno," I said simply. "I'm just a persistent bastard."

"Finally, something we can agree upon."

"_My turn,_" I heard Kaiten say. I soon lost control of my arms, but could see the short swords powering up.

It was a really weird sensation, losing only partial control of my body in a battle, but so far Kaiten had kept his word. I worked defense and he'd play offense when he could. Still, as long as we worked together like this, we had a chance at winning.

As the charge in the swords finished, Kaiten let out an Arc, aimed straight for Beatrix's feet. She avoided them, of course, jumping over them or to the side like the elite knight she was.

_You're aiming at her feet?_ I had to ask. _Why not her chest or head?_

"_It's called training your enemy_," Kaiten explained. "_Do the same move enough times and they'll start to act however you want them to."_

_Ah. Nice trick._

"_Just do it enough times and she'll think I'll be aiming for her feet again. That's when we go for the chest or the head_."

Kaiten finished the last of his Arcs and settled back, giving me total control again. I fell back into a defensive stance, ready to take Beatrix's next attack.

I didn't have to wait long. Beatrix shifted her stance and held one side out to me, standing in a fencing stance. She held her sword in one hand and kept her other hand behind herself.

"How do you keep coming back to irritate me demon?" she asked.

"Demon?" I replied. "Isn't that a little harsh?"

"For someone to die by my hand so many times, but come back to fight me again? How could you be anything else?"

Beatrix charged again, but with only one hand, she gave up a lot of control. I was able to block and parry every attack with some degree of ease. She focused on cutting up my sides and head. She even ended up setting a rhythm, tapping against me defense a few times every second. I got so used to it that I forgot all about her extended hand behind her.

"_Host! Pay attention!_"

Beatrix brought her hand forward, glowing a bright blue. I barely had enough time to counter it before Kaiten brought my second blade down and powered up an Explosion. It caught Beatrix's surprise attack just as she cast Holy. The blue, chained magic didn't last long before it was negated by the energy at the short sword's tip.

"_See what I mean by training an enemy?_"

_Fine, whatever_, I said, admittedly sulking that I had been tricked.

As her magic faded, she gripped her sword with both hands. Now she had the same control as before and tried to pound her sword into me with a few well-aimed thrusts. I was barely able to parry them away before the next strike came.

"_Keep your guard high_!" Kaiten told me. "_I'm taking over the legs_!"

_Okay!_

Beatrix threw in another slash, which I quickly caught and threw up high, just as I lost the feeling in my legs. Beatrix cut straight down, but I caught it as Kaiten went low and went for a leg swipe. It didn't work of course, but it did force the general to back away, giving me enough time to recover for a split second.

I got back on my feet as fast as I could. Beatrix came in from the front. I stopped her blade between my two swords. She was breathing hard, but didn't look as tired as I felt. The adrenaline and the battle were starting to wear me down. I slowed my breathing only a little to give the image that I was doing better.

"I will not let you through to harm the queen," Beatrix said bravely.

"I don't care about your fat queen," I told her, breathing more heavily than I wanted.

"Then what do you want?" Beatrix asked, pushing me back a few inches. "Why are you here?"

As she pushed me back, my anger began to unlock. I struggled against Beatrix's sword, pushing her right back. Our blades were so close to our faces that I was amazed that neither of us had been cut yet.

"I want you…" I began, as I forced Beatrix back. "To back… the hell off!"

With one final push of effort, I knocked Beatrix back and her sword to the side. I charged up my short swords and two Explosions formed at the tips. I rushed forward just as Beatrix was putting up her guard again and crashed my blades into hers. Small blasts went off each time our weapons connected, knocking Beatrix back and apparently hurting her a little. As she reached the far wall of the room, I took a big swing into the ground, smashing up the floor and sending dust and splinters heading the general's way. She was caught up in the flare and fell back.

After a few seconds, the dust hung heavy in the air, and Beatrix wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Holy…" Zidane let out from the back of the room. "Trevor, you did it!"

"Guh," was all I could say. I fell to one knee and tried to catch my breath, barely hanging onto my short swords as I recuperated.

"She's down. Now we can get Dagger out of here," Freya said. "Someone help Trevor so we can get out of here."

"I've got Dagger," Zidane called out. "Rusty, you get Trevor, ok?"

"Me? Assist that scum? You must be joking."

"No… I'm fine…" I breathed heavily. "Just gimme a minute…"

"Take a break," Zidane scolded. "If Steiner helps you we can get out of here much sooner. There are still guards to worry about."

"I know…" I gasped. "But still, I—"

"DEMON!" came the cry from the dust. I only had a second to look as Beatrix charged back and slashed upwards into my chest. I was luck that I was wearing chain mail, or I would have been killed.

"Climmhazard!"

Now, the chain mail didn't matter. The heat and fire of the blast knocked me back so hard that I was knocked off my feet and landed back by the others on the other side of the room.

"Never step into this land again," Beatrix ordered all of us. I leaned up and saw her turn to me, glaring with hatred. "Your pathetic powers are useless against me."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Zidane said, stepping forward. "You're the general of this kingdom. As the general of Alexandria, what is your sworn duty? Isn't it to protect Dagger—your Princess Garnet? Who do you think is sleeping over there?" Zidane pointed to Dagger on the parlor couch, still passed out from the spell she was under.

"It can't be… Princess…" Beatrix slowly realized. She wandered over to the couch's side and kneeled down. "So it was true. The queen really did mean to kill her."

"WHAT? No!" Steiner bellowed. "The queen would never do such a thing!"

"Steiner, it is time for you to accept the truth," Beatrix said boldly. "My heart is set. All this time I have been mistaken."

"I hate to say it, but the lady's right Rusty," Zidane said. "You'd better learn to accept it."

"Citizens of Burmecia, please forgive me," Beatrix muttered in prayer.

"It's too late to seek forgiveness!" Freya snapped. "But you can still save Dagger. I tell you this because I acknowledge your powers. Now help your princess."

"I don't know if I can," Beatrix admitted. She ran her hand softly over the leather patch over her eye, as if remembering an old war wound. "…But I will give it a try."

Beatrix pinched her fingers together and concentrated powerful dispelling magic between them. She gently cast it over Dagger, but with no obvious result.

"Irrevocable is the spell we have cast!" Thorn cried out in his Yoda-talk again.

Beatrix tried the spell again, but with the same effect.

"It is useless!" Zorn taunted.

This time, the magic worked. A thin light passed around Dagger's head and her eyes fluttered open. She groaned as she forced herself up, rubbing her tired head. Everyone looked either elated or relieved, except for the jester twins, whose jaws were hanging out on the floor.

"Princess, are you alright?" Beatrix asked, helping her sit up.

"Oh my head…" Dagger complained. "What happened?"

"Dagger!" Zidane couldn't help but shout. He ran to her side immediately and nearly pounced on her in a hug, but held himself back at the last second. Vivi cheered, Freya looked happily from afar, and Steiner nearly broke into tears. I just smiled and considered kicking Thorn again.

"You're all here," Dagger said, happy but confused.

Our victory was short-lived as another voice, louder and more repulsive than almost any other I had ever heard before.

"What is all this ruckus?"

We turned and saw Queen Brahne finally enter the room. Our escape seemed impossible as the enormous blue woman, fatter than anyone else in the kingdom, blocked the doorway. Quite literally too.

"The princess has been awakened, your Majesty!" Zorn said, running to the queen's side.

"Kidnapping the princess, they are, your Majesty!" Thorn said, doing the same.

"Have you extracted all the eidolons from her?" she asked apathetically.

"We have, your Majesty!" the jester twins replied enthusiastically.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Brahne shouted. "Take Garnet and throw her in prison."

"Yes your Majesty!"

"I won't allow that," Beatrix said. She stood and drew her sword again, standing between the jester twins and us.

"Oh? Are you defying me as well Beatrix?" Brahne asked with half interest.

"Your Majesty, it is my duty to protect the princess," Beatrix tried to reason. "I beg you reconsider. Please do not harm the princess."

As the queen's glare revealed that she didn't intend to listen, Beatrix did one of the coolest things I had ever seen and told us, "All of you leave here at once!"

I was ready to get up and leave anyway, but not before Freya jumped down next to Beatrix, holding her spear out defensively.

"I'm staying," she announced. "Zidane, go. Now!"

"You two are joining forces? How amusing," Brahne laughed. She stopped suddenly and turned to the jester twins. "Get rid of them. I need to get my beauty nap."

"A nap wouldn't be nearly enough," I heard myself calling out. "You'd need a beauty coma!"

Brahne stopped sharply out of irritation, then turned back to Zorn and Thorn.

"Make sure to torture that one especially."

"Yes your Majesty!"

I blinked a few times before I realized that Kaiten had just taken control for a moment. _…Are you happy now?_ I asked him.

"_Quite satisfied actually_."

_Hehe. That was good._

"_But the fusion cost more energy than I thought it would. You're on your own for a while_."

_Got it. We should be fine._

"_Good fighting_."

"Trevor, let's go!" Zidane suddenly yelled. He, Vivi and Dagger were running down the fireplace.

"Wait for me!" I called as I ran after them, jumping down the staircase into the dreadful under dwelling of the castle. Steiner came running up behind me calling out the same thing.

We ran down the darkened tunnel again, making our way down the staircase as quickly as we could. Steiner's clanking armor was almost deafening as it echoed off the bare walls. It was so loud, I didn't get a chance to hear the Black Mages coming.

A heavy door swung open and three Class A Black Mages stepped out. They crossed a bridge that connected the stairs to the opposite wall between the group, separating Zidane and Dagger on the lower end of the stairs and Vivi, Steiner and myself above them.

"Dammit! Black Mages!" Zidane warned us.

"KILL!" the mindless warriors called out. They looked like their weaker counterparts, but they were carrying staves, which allowed them to channel their energy much more effectively. We had to be careful.

"Zidane, get Dagger out of here!" I called down at him.

"What about you?"

"We'll be fine! Go!"

"Trevor-" Dagger started. Zidane grabbed her hand and continued running down the stairs.

"There's one for each of us," I told Steiner and Vivi as the Black Mages walked off the bridge and came walking towards us. "Steiner will have to take out the closest one, so you take out the one in the back, ok Vivi?"

I looked down and saw Vivi channeling a spell already. Before I knew it, he launched it and an explosion erupted out of the wall, aimed at the stairs. A fountain of fire blasted open the wall and kicked the stone stairs away, taking the Black Mages away with them. I saw them fall to the platform down below, the rubble burying them.

"…Or Vivi could do that." I had to remind myself just how powerful this kid could be.

"Aah…" he gasped. "That really wore me out."

"An impressive show Master Vivi," Steiner noted.

"Only now we don't have any stairs to go down," I pointed out. Although Vivi's attack was successful, he blasted away more stairs than I could jump across. We were stranded.

"What do we do now?" Vivi asked.

Steiner was dumbfounded and didn't provide any answers. I looked around and saw that the bridge the Black Mages had crossed over was still up. It was only a few feet away.

"Alright, we can make it if we jump," I said.

"I can't jump that far," Vivi said nervously. He gripped the sides of the stairs tightly, trying not to think of the fall.

"Then I'll carry you."

Before the little mage could protest, I grabbed him and held him on my back. He reached up and held onto my neck tightly. He was surprisingly strong.

"Guk… Not so tight," I gasped as he choked me.

"Sorry."

Vivi's grip relaxed a little and I stood back, getting enough room to jump. I took off and leapt, flying for a few seconds before smashing onto the bridge and sliding. I grabbed onto the ledge seconds before Vivi and I fell to our deaths.

"Aah!" Vivi screamed.

"Hang on!" I told him. My arms strained as I tried to hold us both up. The earlier battle had left me weakened, so I couldn't pull us both up. If I didn't do something soon, we were going to fall to our deaths.

"Vivi, just hang on tightly," I said. He squeezed my neck as hard as he could and soon I couldn't breathe.

I only had a few seconds before Vivi choked me enough to knock us off, so I swung my leg up as high as I could, catching the ledge with my foot. I twisted the both of us up and collapsed. I almost had to rip Vivi's panicked arms from around my throat.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Y…y…yeah…" he said.

It was good that he was trying to be tough, but we still needed to hurry. Who knew how much more time Beatrix and Freya could buy for us.

"You need to hurry!" Steiner called up from above us on the stairs. "The queen will be sending reinforcements soon!"

"What about you?" I called back. "Aren't you coming?"

"No," the knight called out confidently. "Beatrix served the queen all these years, and now she is turning against her… Freya lost her comrades, yet she insists on protecting the princess… The queen will never forgive them. She will kill them both… I will fight with Beatrix and Freya and buy you as much time as I can. Get the princess out of here as quickly as you can!"

Steiner ran up a few stairs before he stopped and looked down at us again. "And if she gets hurt, I will hunt you down, you ruffian!"

I just waved back and turned away. As Steiner faced certain defeat against the Alexandrian army upstairs, we had to get Dagger out.

I ran the rest of the stairs without any complications. Zidane and Dagger were waiting for us, worriedly.

"Where's Steiner?" Zidane asked as Vivi and I finished with the stairs.

"He went back to fight and buy us time," I explained. "C'mon, we have to get out of here."

Dagger was too easily moved though. "Steiner… Everyone's fighting for me." She stood still, looking up the stairs where the battle against Brahne's forces was underway.

"That's right," Zidane said, gently grabbing Dagger by the shoulders. "They're all fighting for you, and for Alexandria. They're giving everything they got, so we have to move on and give all we have too! We can't stop now!"

Dagger looked forward and saw the sincerity in Zidane's eyes. She looked over at Vivi and me, then back to Zidane. "We need to get to Doctor Tot's house in Treno," she said. "He's a scholar, so he might know what to do." She pointed down the darkened hall leading into the underbelly of Alexandria Castle. "We can take a gargant down there. There's a canal that leads right to his home."

"Who's Doctor Tot?" Zidane asked.

"He used to tutor me before he left to study on his own in Treno. He was practically like a second father to me."

Zidane nodded. "Alright, then we'll go to Treno. Come on!"

He lead the way down the darkened corridor, with the rest of us in close pursuit. As little care had been taken into keeping the rest of these back halls clean, it was much better than the gargant station. Mist had gathered in the room and mold was growing everywhere. It filled the place with a stale, wet stench. I almost coughed on it.

"It's down here," Dagger said. "We need to stop the gargant with some food, then we can get on and ride him."

"Good," Zidane said. "Then let's just—"

A wall snapped up in front of us. It looked like someone had strung a whole bunch of barbed wire together and made a fence out of it. It reached the ceiling, cutting off any chance of going forward. Another gate slammed up to the ceiling behind us, getting rid of any chance we had at escape.

"What the hell?" Zidane let out.

"They fell for it!" a nasally voice cried over the wall to the side.

"Really stupid, they are!" came another voice over the opposite wall.

The jester twins, Zorn and Thorn, walked over to the edge of the pit we were now in and began laughing at our pitiable situation.

"Oh no!" Dagger cried. "This is how they captured us last time when Steiner and I tried to get into the castle!"

Zidane turned up at our captors, fists clenched in rage. "You bastards!"

"Bastards we may be, but clever are we," Thorn mocked back. His brother just giggled at the irony of it all.

"Trevor, can't you cut through the wires?" Zidane asked. "You have that magic of yours!"

I blinked. I actually hadn't though of that. "I don't know," I said. "It's worth a shot."

"Trevor can use magic?" Dagger asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it's some kind of soul magic," Zidane explained.

"It's called Chi," I said, pulling out a short sword and placing it parallel to the fence. "And it's not soul magic."

I powered up the sword and unleashed the magic, but not before—

"Ah, ah, ah!" Zorn called from above. He threw his hands in the air while I was charging up and cast a white, protective light over the fence. As my Pulse tried to cut into the wire, the magical shell surrounding it came into effect and negated the magic.

"They cast Shell!" Dagger explained.

"They can cast it on objects too?" I asked.

"They can cast it on anything! We can't cut through!"

Now I was really pissed. "Get down here so I can cave your face in!" I demanded of the jesters.

"Nope, nope!" Thorn called down as Zorn cackled. "Stupid, we are not!"

The cackling stopped as a man in a bandana ran up behind Zorn and landed a strong kick to the head.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

"Marcus?" Zidane asked.

"Zidane, you alright?" came a new voice from Thorn's corner. The blue jester was knocked out and was lying on his side.

"Blank!"

Blank stood before us once again after being unpetrified from the Evil Forest. I could still remember how he sacrificed himself so the rest of us could get out of the rampaging woods. I could only laugh at how well this turned out.

"We came here straight from Evil Forest," Blank said.

"Man, I love you guys!" Zidane laughed.

Marcus disappeared from sight for a moment, only to show up after a second as the gates lowered.

"Zidane, you can ride the gargant downstairs," Marcus said as he came back.

"You guys…"

"Get out of here!" Blank said, drawing a large broadsword. "We'll take care of this. There's more bad guys coming!"

"I owe you guys big time!" Zidane turned to the rest of us. "Let's get outta here."

We all nodded. Leaving before the army showed up sounded like a very good idea. We charged downwards once more. I thought about staying back and kicking the crap out of the jesters, but we didn't have time for it.

As we ran, the smell got worse. Mildew grew on everything in the unkempt gargant station. I wouldn't be surprised if I lost my footing from the slick mold.

"So this is Gargant Roo," Zidane thought aloud.

Walking into the small station, I was amused at how much it looked like the metro stations I used to ride with my father when I was a kid. It certainly explained the excess mildew at least.

"Dagger, are you alright?" Zidane asked.

The princess didn't say anything. She just folded her arms and kept to herself.

"Never mind, forget I asked. You have a lot on your mind."

"Hey!" Vivi said suddenly. "There's something coming!"

A rapid knocking, like a dozen pencils tapping at a chalkboard at once, started coming closer and closer. After a few seconds of waiting, the largest incest that I had ever seen in my life came barreling down a hanging rail. It was dark blue and larger than a pick-up truck. It was carrying a carriage large enough to hold eight people easily beneath itself.

However, I only registered it as a giant bug.

"Oh god…" I muttered as I cringed reflexively. If I felt this bad before even getting on the carriage, then Fossil Roo was going to kill me.

"Is this a gargant?" Zidane blurted out. "It's huge!"

"…Giant bug…"

"We're riding this thing?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah, let's get going," Zidane said. "We have no time to waste." He pulled a switch adjacent to the doorway and a small tray dropped from the ceiling in front of the gargant. It stopped in place and began eating the grass and herbs that had been left for it.

"What kind of loving god would create a bug this big?" I pondered, still mortified.

Zidane smacked me upside the head. "Snap out of it Trevor. We have to leave!"

"Uh…right." I quickly regained my composure and stepped into the carriage, where Vivi was already sitting.

_Yeah, this is about what I'd expect from a subway,_ I thought to myself.

"Dagger, what are you doing?" Zidane asked as he stepped into the carriage. "Let's go."

"I…" she began saying shakily. "I don't know what to do anymore…"

"Oh come on," Zidane said, with a hint of impatience. He stepped off the carriage and confronted her. "Why do you think everyone stayed behind? Yeah, they're fighting for you, but deep down, they know that they have to fight."

"What do you mean?" Dagger asked.

"Sometimes, you can't think everything out. You just have to follow your gut."

Dagger waited a moment before she nodded. "Alright," she said. "I'll try."

"Good," Zidane said, cracking a smile for the first time since our escape. "Now let's get out of here before—"

Just then, the Gargant let out a loud chirping howl. I looked up and saw the food in front of him was gone. Zidane and dagger had spent too much time talking. That meant—

"Guys, get on!" I yelled.

But it was too late. The giant bug began running off along the hanging rail. It started off so quickly that I fell to the floor beside the seat. By the time I could stand up again, Vivi was holding onto the handrail as tightly as he could, with Zidane and Dagger still missing from the carriage.

"Stop you stupid thing!" I yelled at the gargant. It did about as much good as trying to stop a tank with a handgun.

The thief and the princess ran down the platform to catch up. I pulled myself up and held a hand out for them, to grab onto. Zidane reached out too, but it was useless. They were too far and the bug was moving too fast. We left the station before they could get on and left them behind.

"Trevor! Vivi!" Zidane yelled at us.

"Guys!" Vivi yelled.

"MEET US IN TRENO!" I yelled back. "WE'LL WAIT FOR YOU!"

I could see Zidane yelling something back at us, but the distance, as well as the noise of the gargant's claws against the rail, made it impossible to hear.

The station soon faded away as Vivi and I traveled alone down the dark cavern. Our only source of light was a lantern hanging from the front of the carriage. The walls looked like they were carved out by reckless miners looking for diamonds, like a cave out of an old movie.

We gently rocked up and down as the gargant moved. I hoped my nausea was from worry over how the others would catch up and not from motion sickness.

"What are we going to do Trevor?" Vivi asked, more scared than I've seen him in a while. "Where are we going? What's going to happen to Zidane and Dagger?"

"This bug should stop in Treno," I answered after a few seconds. I had to settle myself down for a moment. Without Zidane and Dagger with us, who could say would happen to the storyline? I couldn't lose my edge like that.

"Are the others going to be ok?" Vivi asked.

"They'll be fine," I assured him. I sat back in my seat, opposite him, and tried to relax. "We'll just wait for them in Treno. From there, we'll go see Dagger's old teacher, Doctor Tot."

"Okay…"

I waited a few more seconds as I tried to think of something to cheer him up. After a moment, I came up with something.

"Hey, don't worry about anything Vivi. When we get to Treno, we'll just—"

The gargant let out a panicked chirp and came to a sudden halt. I fell out of my seat again and landed on the floor.

"This stupid bug is just asking me to—"

"Trevor! Look!" Vivi cried out. He was hanging over the edge of the carriage and was pointing straight ahead.

I stood up and looked out into the tunnel. I couldn't see anything at first since my eyes were still adjusting to the dim light, but the growl was enough to explain it to me. The gargant backed up nervously. Slowly, I saw an enormous snake slither before us. It looked like it was big enough to eat the gargant whole.

"Vivi, stay in the carriage. We're not done fighting yet."

"What is it?"

"Just an annoyance," I explained. "I'll keep him busy. Use your strongest magic on it when you get a chance."

I unsheathed my short swords and hopped to the cavern floor. The monster snake approached us; its green scales seemed to give off a slight glow. It flicked its demonic forked tongue at us, inspecting its prey and sizing us up. It seemed to stare at me for a moment before rearing back and opening its jaw wide, giving off an almost deafening roar in the small cave.

"Oh, this isn't going to be fun."

XXXXXXXX

There, finally finished. It's kind of ironic since one review from Yuleen75 said a quick update would never come when this chapter was already about a quarter of the way done. XD Well, either way, it's faster than my usual updates, so I guess I'm improving.

One note on this boss though: I've always considered a few of the boss fights in FFIX as sort of filler villains. This is one of them, sort of since it doesn't add terribly much to the plot. But it's still important enough to include, I suppose. I wasn't thinking of having too much of a boss fight, but if you guys want, I can expand it accordingly.

Here's hoping I can update faster next time! :D


	11. Tragedy Befalls the Land

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Sorry this took so long guys. On top of a massive 130-page project I had to work on for my senior project (not including four 10-pagers on the side), one of my favorite professors recently had a heart attack. He's fine now, but it kind of worried everyone in the history department.

Anyway, I've managed to get this up sooner than I thought I would, even if it's not as timely as I would have liked. XP But, at least I've moved ahead a little bit, right?

Chapter- Tragedy Befalls the Land

XXXXXXXX

So far, out of all the boss fights I've fought, I always had Zidane there, backing me up. It's not that I needed his leadership, but there was something about his confidence that made everything seem more durable.

That was why the current fight seemed so harrowing.

"ViVIIIIIII!" I screamed for support as I barely dodged another tail swipe from the massive snake. I rolled to the side as the scaly tail swooped overhead.

A wave of fire erupted from the snake's side. It roared in discomfort, but the attack had little real effect. I pushed myself up, still tired from running out of the castle.

The fight had already been going on for a while, but we hadn't been able to make a dent in him. His scales were too thick and magic couldn't do much against him. I had already tried using Explosion and Pulse to cut into him, but every time I got close, the monster either dodged or smacked me away.

"He's too fast! My magic can't hit him!"

The serpent swerved again, sending his tail flying through the air. I quickly fell to my stomach to avoid getting hit. Vivi was standing too close though and got his hat knocked off.

"My hat!" he cried as he chased after it briefly. He covered his bald, midnight-black head with one hand and reached out for his hat with the other as it flew to the other side of the cavern.

As Vivi ran defenselessly went after his hat, the serpent reared back and prepared to strike. I could only call out for Vivi to stop as the huge tail crashed down hard enough to sent chunks of rocks flying everywhere.

"VIVI!"

Decades of dust rose so thick that it covered everything. The snake held still for a few seconds. I swear it was smirking as it slid its tail away agonizingly slow.

I stood as still as I could, listening intently as the smoke and dust settled. There was nothing but the snake hissing for the longest time. Then—

*Cough* "I'm okay!"

Vivi's silhouette emerged from the dust. He hopped quickly with a limp, dragging his bent and torn hat behind him.

"I think a rock hit my leg," he said. "And he crushed my hat."

I was pissed. I only noticed that I was grinding my teeth together when they began to hurt. My pulse quickened and I felt the Chi begin to flow throughout my body once again. It immediately shot through the sword and gathered in it.

_Range_, I told myself. _I need range. I need arc._

The energy crept into my short swords. I didn't know how Kaiten did it, but I could speculate. I concentrated on putting only a little energy into the tip of the swords, ready to release it as I swung. I pulled back, ready to attack—

Nothing.

"The hell?"

The snake roared again as I ran along the edge of the cavern, swinging my blades wildly with no result. I glanced up and saw the gigantic tail crash down once again, aiming right for me.

"Cra—"

**BOOM**

"Trevor!"

I coughed a few times as the thick smoke choked me. The tail had missed by the slightest margin. I pulled myself away and stood up.

A sharp stab wracked my left leg. As the smoke cleared, I looked down and realized that I hadn't completely dodged the attack. My ankle was broken and my foot was deformed. It was probably crushed. I stared in horror. I knew that I should be in a substantial amount of pain. I was only calm at the moment because my pain receptors hadn't kicked in yet.

"Trevor, are you alright?" Vivi asked, running to my side.

"No, I'm not," I said quickly. "In a minute, I'm going to be in a lot of pain. You need to finish—"

My breath cut short and my body tensed up as waves of pain ran up my leg. It pulsed with another jolt with every movement. My own heartbeat began to hurt.

As the pain increased, so did my screams. They echoed throughout the small cavern and came back, almost deafening me. Worst of all, I still knew that if I didn't do something quick, the snake was going to finish crushing me, then would kill Vivi, but as I was, I couldn't do anything.

_Kaiten!_ I tried to concentrate. _Kai…ten… Where… hell… are you?_

No response. He must have still been exhausted from fighting earlier.

I could only look up at the snake and hope that I got a few more moments to prepare a defense.

"NNOOOOOO!"

As I looked up at the ceiling, a white spark swam past my eye. Then another. Then another. In under a second there was an entire flurry of them. I turned and saw Vivi be consumed by a bright light. Then, just as soon as it had come, it faded away, revealing Vivi, once again, in a full white outfit, still glowing brightly in the dark tunnel.

He had Tranced.

"That's enough!" he cried out.

The snake, which had lived its entire life in the dim cave, wasn't used to the sudden flash of light and was blind for the moment. It shrieked in surprise and hid its head within several coils of its tail. Normally, that would have helped it, but Vivi's power had grown immensely since the last time he had gone into Trance.

"Blizzara!" Vivi cast. A large block of ice grew beneath the snake and expanded. It froze the monster in place. Several spikes broke away and pierced its sides, causing it to bleed.

"Fira!" came the next spell. A fireball exploded over the monster's head along the ceiling. Fire rained down from above, as did several rocks. The snake was soon covered in rocks and burns all over itself.

"Thundara!" Vivi finished. A bolt of lightning crashed down directly on top of the now-immobile monster. It struck the thrashing beast as it wriggled around in torment. After a few moments, it stopped and laid still.

Vivi's Trance ended and turned around and knelt by me. I had been so amazed by his sudden attack that it was able to quell my pain for a few moments.

"Uh… where do you keep your potions?" he asked, looking over my pockets.

"Potions…" I wondered. Then it hit me. I didn't carry potions. Zidane was always the one who had them. "Dammit, I don't have any," I said.

Another jolt of pain emanated from my destroyed foot. I had to hold back a scream. We were still a long way off from Treno or Lindblum, so I needed to learn how to deal with the limits that had just been handed to me.

Where's the Gargant?" I asked, planning our next move.

"Um… over there," Vivi said, pointing a small distance behind us.

I took a deep breath. "I'll need you to get in first, then help me in, ok?"

"Alrighty. But are you sure you can move?"

"Nope."

I crawled a few feet on my hands and knees, dragging my useless foot behind myself. It hurt. A lot.

"Augh! Dammit!" I collapsed and clenched up again.

"Maybe… maybe we should wait for Zidane to come find us."

"I don't think I'll last that long," I said. "I still have one good leg. If I can keep my weight on it then I should be fine."

"But won't it hurt?"

"Oh it'll hurt like hell, but that's part of what fighting this war costs," I explained. "Part of growing up means doing things you really don't want to do."

"You mean like killing people?" he asked quietly.

"Exactly," I said, standing to one foot. I awkwardly hopped my way along toward the carriage. Each hop took a toll on me as my left foot dangled and pulsed with agony like the dead piece of skin that it was. It took a few grueling minutes, but I was able to get to the Gargant. Vivi climbed right in, with me right behind him.

"Alright stupid bug, go," I ordered.

It didn't budge.

"Mush, giddyap, move, something!" I said, more impatiently.

"Are you ok Trevor?"

"I'm fine. Just tired and pissed."

With a slow lurch, the bug finally started moving. It barely crept along at first, but picked up the pace soon enough.

"Ow, dammit! Ow." I grunted. "This is going to take a while."

Vivi just sat quietly, unsure what to do or say to help. He ran a hand over his crushed hat, trying to keep it in its original form.

Maybe I would buy him a new one once we got into town. I had the money for it.

"That was some good fighting by the way," I said proudly. "Didn't think you'd go into Trance that easily."

"Thanks," Vivi said. "I was just scared."

"Well, whatever it was, it worked. We're going to need that in the future."

"Alrighty," he said, smiling for the first time in a while.

I eased back in my seat, trying to relax and adjust in such a way that my foot wouldn't hurt as much. Vivi went back to checking his hat. There were probably better ones we could get for him, so I decided to offer to get one for him.

"You know, when we get to Treno, why don't we—"

The Gargant let out a shrill cry, cutting me off. Behind us, the pile of rocks covering the snake exploded and the monster rushed out once more and began chasing us down.

"Damn, damn, damn!" I cried out. I held onto the carriage as tightly as I could, managing to keep myself somewhat stable.

"We're going too fast!" Vivi said.

"Just hang on!"

The wind brushed passed us as the chase continued. I prayed that the Gargant would be able to outrun the snake. I knew I wouldn't be able to fight again.

Out of the darkness up ahead, we saw a dim light coming towards us. It seemed to get bigger and brighter the closer we came.

"It's the station!"

"We're gonna pass it!"

The light came and went. Vivi and I were able to see the station for only a few brief seconds; not nearly enough time to jump off at these speeds. We just gripped the sides of the Gargant as we breezed by.

"No!" Vivi cried out.

_So it's not changing_, I realized. _The storyline's going to keep moving on it's own. Then that means…_

I turned to look down the tunnel again. Another bright light was coming towards us, but it was brighter than the one at the station. The snake slithered faster and nearly caught up to us.

"Vivi! Hang—"

There was a loud crash, then everything went dark.

XXXXXXXX

"Bro…" Marcus said solemnly.

"I know," Blank replied.

"We screwed up."

"The boss'll blow a fuse if he finds out about this."

"Be quiet in there!" the guard said, banging on the prison bars holding the two Tantalus brothers in confinement.

After Zidane and the others left, Marcus and Blank fled up the stairs to hold off the onslaught of soldiers coming down to capture the princess and her rescuers. They only lasted against a few soldiers before being knocked to the ground and subdued. They had been imprisoned for only a few hours, but since they hadn't heard anything from the guards about a certain "monkey boy" being captured, they weren't too worried.

Blank quickly stood up and approached the barred wall. "So when do we get our free meal? I feel like I haven't eaten in a week."

"I think it's been closer to two, actually," Marcus corrected.

"I was petrified that long?"

"I told you to be quiet!" the guard shot back.

"Jeez… Someone's in a bad mood," Blank stated.

"Maybe the queen cut her pay," Marcus said.

"Don't make me come in there!" the guard threatened.

"Uhh… No offence sweet cheeks, but you're a little too… shapely for me," Blank said with a twisted expression.

"The boss said you shouldn't beat around the bush like that bro," Marcus said. "Just be honest and call her fat."

"That's it!" the guard said. The two thieves grinned at each other as the guard foolishly reached for her keys to "teach them a lesson". "I'm going to break your—"

"Make way for the queen!" came the cry over the prison. Just as Marcus and Blank's guard was about to open the door and haphazardly give them a chance at escape, she froze, turning to salute Brahne as she strode in, smug in her recent victory against the attempted revolutionaries. A guard followed her, carrying a scroll used for notes. A man in a black hood was walking behind them both, carrying a black bag. Several long needles stuck out of the top.

As Brahne passed the cells, she glanced in at the two newest additions.

"Who are these riffraff?" the queen asked.

"We caught them fending off guards in the lower levels of the castle, your highness," one guard explained. "They took out four guards before we were able to stop them."

"Don't feed them for two days, and hold them indefinitely," Brahne ordered.

Blank's stomach growled in protest.

"Make that three days," Brahne corrected. "I want to make sure they learn their lesson."

The two thieves stared in astonishment as Brahne moved along after giving so cruel an order.

"Bro…" Marcus said, still stunned.

"Yeah, I know," Blank said. "THAT chick was the fat one!"

Brahne walked a few more cells down the hall before seeing two more fighters that recently came under imprisonment. The first she knew as Adelbert Steiner, her former Captain of the Knights of Pluto. The second was just a dragon knight from Burmecia. She cared little for either.

"Have the rat interrogated," Brahne ordered. "See if she knows anything useful, then execute her."

"Yes ma'am," the guard standing by said. "But what about Captain Stei—"

"The FORMER captain will be left here to rot. I want him to waste away as he regrets his previous value."

"You monster…" came a weak voice from inside one of the cells. Freya weakly glanced up. She had suffered multiple injuries from her attackers before and had nearly been devoured by a Bandersnatch before the monstrous dogs were called off.

"So the rat has something to say?" Brahne mocked.

"You won't… win this…" Freya said. She coughed, spitting out a handful of blood before collapsing against the floor in her cell.

"Hmph. Send a white mage to make sure she doesn't stain my prison cells with her filthy blood."

"Queen Brahne!" came an all-to-familiar voice. Brahne looked over and saw Steiner gripping the bars of his cell tightly, shaking with rage.

"If the prison is really this lively, then maybe we should cut the rations," Brahne decided. "Reduce the food to the prisoners by half," she told the nearby guard. "We'll see how rebellious they are when they're begging for food."

"I will take any punishment! Just don't harm the princess!" Steiner valiantly offered.

"I won't be harming Garnet any time soon in any way Steiner," Brahne said with a devilish grin.

"Really?" Steiner said, not entirely convinced.

"Of course!" Brahne said, continuing on her way. "After all, the hit men I sent after her will dispose of her and take back the pendant she stole from me, so I won't have to do anything at all!"

"WHAT!" Steiner bellowed hysterically. "How dare you! I will stop you Brahne! HOW DARE YOU!"

Steiner's voice was quickly lost to the darkness. He fell back to the ground, still shaking. Only this time, he was simply trying to hold back his tears.

"And where is Beatrix?" Brahne asked the guard as she walked.

"She's being tortured as we speak your highness."

"Excellent. I don't want her to have another comfortable moment again for as long as she lives."

"Shall we strap her arms to the ceiling when she sleeps your highness?"

"Yes, strapping her arms will cripple them. She will never be able to raise a fist against me again."

"Yes ma'am."

Brahne passed several more empty cells with her guard taking notes and the man in the black hood behind them both. It wasn't until they reached he very deepest regions of the prison that they found the door they were looking for. The guard opened the door and revealed the maximum-security cells inside. All were underground and all were impervious to magic. Even in the off chance a prisoner was to escape, there were several heavily armed guards waiting at the only door to escape out of.

The guards all saluted as Brahne walked in.

"Which one is he in?" the queen asked in excited anticipation.

"Third on the left your highness."

"Good."

Brahne signaled for the man in the black hood to open the door and begin his work. The wide metal door swung open to show William Delores sitting chained to the far wall. He was covered in scars and deep cuts, many of which still hadn't healed.

"So… it's that time again," Delores said calmly.

"You knew this would happen," Brahne sneered.

"This is the second time today. Is your bloodlust truly that insatiable?"

"Be glad for white magic Delores. We can do this as many times as you like and you will never die."

Delores, still strong in spirit, chuckled before muttering something under his breath.

"What was that?" Brahne demanded.

"I said, Trevor will stop you," Delores said. He stared back at Brahne so fiercely that she fell back a step.

"Trevor?"

"My son. He fought my forces in Cleyra and won. I know you won't be able to stop him."

"He must be traveling with Garnet." Brahne paused for a moment before she burst out laughing.

"What's so amusing?"

"If your son came here from Cleyra, then he must have been with the band of fighters that took Garnet away."

"What's your point?"

"The hunters searching for Garnet will run into your son as well. And they will kill him."

Delores scoffed. "Like hit men are enough to kill Trevor."

"I would assume Lani the Bounty Hunter and the Flaming Amarant would be."

Delores' expression suddenly dropped. The confidence he once had now turned to panic.

"You horrid BITCH!" he screamed. He struggled with his chains binding his arms behind him, trying desperately to get up and fight. He only got to his knees before the man in the black hood charged him and pressed a thick needle deep into his shoulder. Delores screamed as he was subdued.

"If I ever get out of this, I will make you pay for sending them after him!"

"But you do bring up an interesting point," Brahne said. "Just in case you do manage to escape, you could see him again, couldn't you?" The queen put her hand on the hooded man's shoulder. "When you're done with him today, pluck out his eyes. I don't want to give him the pleasure of seeing his son's face ever again."

Brahne turned away and laughed as she exited, taking satisfaction in hearing Delores' screams of pain and protest.

XXXXXXXX

"Ugh…" I mumbled. "Dammit… The hell happened?"

I looked around, trying to get a feel for the surroundings. I was outside and could see a dark sunset. The Gargant and the snake were nowhere in sight, which was probably a good thing. I felt around and found the lip of the carriage, pulling myself up slowly. The carriage was cracked in half at the middle and was resting on a small green hill.

"Vivi?"

I pulled myself out of the carriage, careful not to upset my broken foot. The environment had changed completely. Instead of being in the dusty, dark cavern we were chased in, I was now in a lush forest, with some of the healthiest grass and trees that I could see. I could hear a small river flowing not too far away, probably over the next hill.

"Vivi!" I tried again.

"I'm here!" he called out, running up the hill. He was carrying a bundle of sticks and set them down in a scattered pile next to the carriage. I crawled over to it just as he cast Fire on it. A small flame roared to life and began burning.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The harness was knocked away from the Gargant," Vivi said. "You were knocked out for a while, so I tried to explore and look around."

"Alright, probably a good idea." I didn't like the idea of him wandering around by himself, but he was fine and that's what was important. "So, what did you find?"

"Not much, but there aren't a lot of monsters around. I think we're safe here."

"That's good. I don't think I could do much fighting anyway."

If that wasn't enough good news, we still had time before Lindblum was attacked. With all the commotion caused by Steiner, Beatrix and the others, Brahne would have some troubles to deal with at home before she could attack the neighboring city. We probably had another day to rescue the citizens and get them out of harm's way. I immediately began working on a strategy to repel Alexandria's forces. For one thing, we couldn't let them get into the air dock.

"Trevor?"

"Huh?" I was broken out of my thoughts as Vivi sat next to me, looking contemplatively into the fire. "What's up Vivi?"

"What are we going to do now?" His stomach growled to accompany him. "I'm getting hungry."

"I guess it's been a while since we've eaten," I said. "Aren't there any fruits around?"

"I don't know what's good to eat and what isn't. My grandpa said some foods were poisonous."

"Good point," I admitted. I wasn't sure what was really good and what wasn't around here. If only we had a monster like a Fang around. That wouldn't be too hard to kill, and I could probably cook it well enough.

"Well, well. It's not often that I get visitors."

Vivi and I jumped at the new voice. There was an old man standing over the wrecked carriage. He was bald and bent-over, carrying a staff with a crescent moon on top.

"Who are you?" Vivi asked, startled.

"Don't worry young one, I won't hurt you, the old man said. "I have no reason to." I knew who he was in an instant. But I still had to maintain ignorance.

"That still doesn't answer the question," I demanded somewhat rudely. "Who are you?"

The old man chuckled. "But I don't have to answer that, do I? You already know who I am, don't you?"

My eyes widened with concern. Could this guy see into my mind or something?

"I… took a class on mystic history once," I quickly lied to Vivi. "If I'm right, this guy is Ramuh. An Eidolon."

"Huh? What's an Eidolon?" Vivi asked.

Ramuh just chuckled more. "Oh, still believe you have to lie to your comrades, don't you? Do you mean to believe that you can't tell them the truth?"

I only stared in disbelief. "…What are you talking about?"

"Lying about your origins, lying about Dali, lying about your intent. Yes, you really want to help your friends, but that's not the entire story, is it?"

"Shut up!" I said as panic began to set in.

"Trevor, what's he talking about?"

"Ignore him Vivi. He's insane."

"You would go to this length to hide, even now?" Ramuh continued to torment. "Why? Don't you trust your friends?"

I was at a complete loss. Ramuh apparently knew that I was from Earth and that I had been attacked in Dali, and he probably knew even more than he was letting on. If things continued like this, he would ruin everything I had done so far.

"Vivi, go somewhere else," I said. "I need to talk to this guy."

"But—"

"Now! I'll catch up in a minute."

Vivi looked at the two of us unsurely before he wandered off into the woods.

"Alright, what the hell was that about?" I demanded to know. "Do you know how hard it is for me to keep my cover? And how the hell do you know all this?"

"We Eidolons are connected with Gaia and know all that happens upon it. Even now, we can see the movements caused by Brahne and the man who pushes her forward. Kuja. But I digress…" Ramuh sat down on the edge of the broken carriage. "I wasn't doing it to confuse your friend or put your identity at risk. Rather, you need to look back at your motives."

"What? What's wrong with my motives?"

"You shut out your friends, lie that you're from another planet, and you don't ask for their help after you were attacked in Dali. Why?"

I took a few seconds, wondering why the Eidolon of Thunder was bothering to waste my time with these pointless questions.

"It's because they're my problems. I don't want to burden the others with something as bizarre as me being an alien or having another soul stuck in my head. Hell, I'm _still_ trying to figure that one out."

"Being selfless is not the same as shutting them out," Ramuh said calmly. "You're not telling them because you're afraid they might judge you differently."

"But… I'm not…"

"Yes, you are. And the sooner you realize the mistake you're making, the sooner you can prevent yourself from reverting back to what you used to be."

"When did I…"

Then I stopped and thought for a moment. Back in high school, I was a loner and ended up shutting everyone out. I tried at first to be friendly and make lots of friends, but since I had moved to the area only months before, I didn't know anyone and the cliques were already formed. I had nowhere to go and every time I opened up and acted nicely to someone else, it would get thrown back in my face.

Dejected and angry, I became a loner. The few people I could really call my friends were the only ones I didn't try to torment in return. I became a rageholic by the end of it and only changed back to my kinder, originally gentle persona after my dog, Shadow, died in my arms. The memories came flooding back to me and I fell onto my one good leg.

"Do you understand now?" Ramuh asked, standing once again.

"Yeah," I said. "You're say that, if I keep everyone at a distance…"

"Then you'll fall right into the plan the men who did this to you set."

"You mean the old guys from Dali?"

"Yes."

I paused for a moment to reflect. I didn't like it, but it made sense.

"So what should I do? I can't just come up to them and say, 'Hey guys, good to see you. By the way, I lied and I'm not from this planet'."

"Open up to them and in time, they will cease to think of you as anyone different."

Ramuh stood strongly before me. His old age did seemed to illustrate his wisdom.

"Alright, but I have another question."

"Please, ask."

"If you can see all this, then why don't you or the other Eidolons step in and stop Kuja? If all of you go after him at once, then he won't stand a chance."

Ramuh chuckled. "You have a point, and we would have done so long ago if we could interact with the world." Ramuh walked slowly to a nearby tree and stuck his hand right through it. "As you can see, we're somewhat like what you would call, a ghost. We need a powerful Summoner in order attack an enemy."

"So, that's why—"

"Yes. That's why Kuja destroyed Maiden Sari and killed the Summoners."

I blinked a few times, trying to fit everything in my mind. It all made so much more sense now. Maiden Sari, the Eidolons, Kuja, as well as my own epiphany. All I had to do now was find the others, find a decent opportunity to tell them the truth, then help them save the world.

"Thank you Ramuh," was all I could really say.

"You are welcome traveler," the wise old man said. He dissipated for a moment, then reemerged in his true form. He was still an old man, but now his beard flowed in full, all the way down to his feet. His staff had changed and now looked like a crescent moon with one end standing higher than the other. Ramuh stood up straight and held his arm out to me. He dropped a bright green rock into my hand.

"Give this to the Summoner of your group," he said. His words boomed in my head, demonstrating his power. If he was a strong as he sounded, then he could have destroyed the entire forest in an instant. "She will need my power if she is to continue her journey."

"Wait, do you know where she is? Is she still with Zidane? Are they safe?"

"Yes. They have made their way to Treno, but that is not your present concern." He pointed his cane to the east. "Lindblum is that way. You must arrive in time to help the fallen. There is a branch you may use as a crutch to help you move on your broken foot."

"Help the fallen?" I asked. "I thought Brahne was still busy dealing with everyone in the castle!"

Before he answered, he vanished again. Instead of chasing after him, I heard Vivi running up to me with a panicked look on his face.

"Trevor!" he called out. "Something's wrong!"

"Vivi, what's going on?" I asked. "Is it Lindblum?"

"Y-yeah! Queen Brahne is attacking it right now!"

"What!" I bellowed. "How did she mobilize that fast? We've only been gone for a few hours!"

"No, we crashed here last night," Vivi said sheepishly. "You were asleep the entire time."

"What!"

"What's wrong? Did I do something bad?"

_Dammit_…

"Just hand me that branch over there," I said, pointing to the branch Ramuh had pointed out earlier. "We need to go now!"

I was lucky that the branch was shaped just right for me. Vivi and I were able to reach the forest's edge in a matter of minutes. I had to bite my bottom lip to shut out the pain from my foot as we moved quickly.

Lindblum soon came into sight. The twilight night sky overhead made the fire and the explosions glow brighter, making the city's destruction even more horrifying.

"No, dammit…" I said. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

A large, wide field lay between the city and us. Vivi and I ran across it as quickly as we could run, but there was nothing we could do. Every terrified scream, every blown apart building, we saw it all. Then came the worst part.

I slid to a halt, almost falling down.

"No, no!" I yelled. "God dammit, NO!"

Atomos, the Dimension Eidolon, rose from the earth to consume Lindblum.


	12. Old Friends

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: I actually managed to get an early start on this one. Yes, this is another one of those chapters that was so cool, I've been thinking about various elements to put in it for the better part of a year now. Hopefully, I've managed to display that in my writing properly and didn't make an ass of myself in the process like everything else I try to do. XP

I also wanted to apologize for taking as long as I did in updating. Despite my early start, life got in the way. I graduated from college last week (go me XD) and everything kinda spiraled into a clusterfuck. Now I'm unemployed and still looking for a job. XD Bah. At least I can still write.

Chapter 12- Ruined City and Old Friends

XXXXXXXX

It was one thing to see Lindblum's destruction in the game. It was entirely different to actually experience it.

In the game, you only saw a few brief images of soldiers being attacked. Everything was covered by an ominous music track. A gamer didn't see entire city districts pulled away all at once. They didn't feel the heat of the fires all the way out into the surrounding fields. They didn't hear the screams, the pleas for mercy, or the children begging to know where mommy was.

I felt sick.

I thought my constitution was stronger than this, but I had to lean on my crutch as I nearly threw up.

"Trevor," Vivi said. "Why are they doing this?"

"Monsters…" I said, giving into my rage. I gripped the crutch so tightly that for a moment I worried about breaking it.

Atomos continued to devour the city. It looked like nothing more than a giant mouth pulling everything in like a black hole. The title "Dimension Eidolon" fit it well.

"We need to go," I realized. I started walking on my now-shaky legs. Atomos finished its attack and vanished9, dropping the hundreds of people who weren't devoured to the streets and buildings below. But the screaming didn't stop. The fires continued burning, and I knew that I could have prevented all of it. This was my fault.

"Trevor…?"

Ramuh was right. If I had put a little more trust in the others… If I had told the others the truth from the beginning, then maybe I could have stopped this. Stopped Brahne from attacking, or maybe more people could have gotten out.

"Trevor?"

It was my fault these people were dead. I did NOTHING!

"Trevor!"

"WHAT?"

Vivi shrank back to a walk. It was only now that I realized how fast I had been running. The pain from my foot had been a dull ache. The adrenaline must have had me going.

"Um… You're bleeding," Vivi said sheepishly.

I looked down and saw blood seeping out of my sneaker. I had been putting too much weight on it.

"Shit. Sorry Vivi," I said, putting my weight back onto the crutch. I gripped it firmly and pressed on.

"I'm just really worried about everything here," I explained. "It only makes sense that Brahne would go after Lindblum after she tried to destroy Cleyra."

"O-okay…"

"I didn't mean to snap. Sorry."

I had to get control of myself. If I started losing it now, then there was no way I could open up to the others later.

"It's ok," he said. "I know how you feel."

"You do?" I asked, confused at how he really could.

"Yeah… Queen Brahne is using Black Mages to hurt people," he said. "It's just like in Burmecia. All those people…"

I glanced back as Vivi jogged to catch up to me. Maybe having to rely on himself while I was unconscious did more for him than I thought. This war was really making him mature.

"C'mon, we need to get to Lindblum," I said. "There might be survivors."

"Alright."

XXXXXXXX

The smoke was still piling high and plenty of people were still screaming. Vivi and I approached the front gate as quickly as we could, keeping ourselves out of sight from any Alexandrians or Black Mages that could have been in the area.

Even the front gate, which was far enough away from the actual combat, was a scene of carnage. Lindblum Soldiers were lying in their blood, slain by Alexandrian soldiers cutting off the best route of escape. I couldn't see any Alexandrian bodies.

"This is just like Burmecia," Vivi said solemnly.

"Yeah."

In the panic, the only lights were the fires that were burning away the homes and buildings. I was glad that Vivi and I walked into the mostly unharmed Business District. I remembered the last time I was here was during the Festival of the Hunt. Back then, there was a turbulent atmosphere. Now with the flickering shadows dancing on the walls, there didn't seem like much of a point to fighting back here.

"Why are they doing this?" Vivi asked. "Don't they know they're hurting people?"

"There are very corrupt people in this world Vivi," I explained. The air was thick with the stench of the dead, which only fueled my anger. "Monsters that take human form."

I looked on the corpses of the citizens of Lindblum in the streets. The Alexandrian troops must have swept through here as part of a shock campaign to take away the soldier's resolve. These people died just so an attacking nation could save some troops in the long run.

"These bastards will do anything to get what they want, no matter who they have to hurt or destroy," I continued.

As I spoke, a squad of four Alexandrian soldiers came around the corner. They saw Vivi and I ambling towards them and rushed us.

"Hey!" the one in front yelled. "All civilians are to report to the holding cells immediately."

I ignored them. "Then there are the minions that blindly follow their master without thought for themselves or for the world around them."

The lead soldier came at me and grabbed me by the shoulder. "Hey, didn't you hear me? I said get into your cage or we'll deal with you by force!"

I scanned the lot of them. One of them was holding a little girl firmly. The kid couldn't have been more than six. She was crying while holding a small, singed teddy bear.

"And the only effective way to deal with these things is to kill every single one of them."

"That's it!" the lead soldier said. She pulled out her sword and held it against my throat. "Either you're coming with us or—HLKK!"

I shut the bitch up by shoving half my short sword into her gut.

"Be quiet," I told her. My voice was low and coarse. I found the energy came to me very easily. I charged up the sword and used Pulse on the soldier. One half of her fell towards her friends. I threw the other half to the side.

"You…" one of the remaining guards said. "What are you?"

"Let the kid go," I warned, teeth bared and sword ready.

They didn't comply. They all drew their swords and came at me all at once.

"Vivi!"

"Got it!" the little mage called out from behind. He quickly launched a fireball over my shoulder that hit the soldier holding the little girl dead on. She fell to the ground, releasing the child.

The two other guards paused for only a second. It was more than enough for me. I sent more energy into the sword and a ball of Chi capped the tip. I thrust the blade into the street, just as the soldiers neared me. The resulting blast sent rocks and a shockwave towards them. One soldier was thrown back into a building while the other took a rock to the head. I didn't know if she was knocked out or killed, but I didn't care.

I took a few seconds to breathe. I was sure that I was able to manipulate my Chi so quickly now because everything around me was pissing me off. The added anger and fury pushed me beyond my normal limits. Maybe it was because seeing the little girl so scared in the clutches of those soldiers—

_Hey, where'd she go?_

"Trevor!" Vivi called out. He pointed at the end of the street where the girl had run.

"What are you doing?" I yelled at her. "Get back here before you get hurt!"

She didn't listen. I could see her clutching her bear tightly as she ran blindly, but there was no way I could catch up to her.

"Vivi, you have to go stop her!" I said. "Bring her back so we can keep her safe."

"Okay," he said, rushing off. I hobbled along as well as I could on my crutch, going horribly slow. I tried to figure out our next steps as I walked.

_First, we need to find all the survivors that we can. Then we need to get to the castle. Then we wait for Zidane and Garnet and get to Fossil Roo. That shouldn't be too difficult._

Unfortunately, as I was lost in thought for the moment, I didn't notice the other patrol force sneak up behind me.

"Hold it right there!" one of them barked.

I turned to face them. I still had some residual anger from the last fight, but this lot was out of range, and with my foot the way it was, I couldn't jump them.

"We saw what you just did," the same soldier yelled. One of them pulled out a bow and aimed it right for me. "Turn yourself over and we won't kill you."

I blinked, feigning boredom. "How do you know I won't just kill you where you stand?"

"Because if you could, you would have done it by now."

_Dammit. Dead on._

I should have known better than rush into the city like this. I was clearly injured, Vivi was a kid who was still afraid of war, and Kaiten still wasn't responding to me. I had almost every disadvantage bogging me down. But at least we still had one chance in my partner by my side.

"Vivi—"

"Get away from her!" he suddenly cried out. As soon as I turned, a Black Mage backhanded Vivi. The new enemy stood over the terrified little girl, staring down with a blank expression.

"KILL!" it said robotically.

"No!" I yelled. "Vivi, you have to stop it!"

"If you move, we will kill you!" the soldier said again.

I was torn. Risk death to save someone I probably couldn't, or just let her die and do nothing.

The little girl screamed helplessly. "Mommy! Where's my mommy?"

The Black Mage ignored the horror in her voice as it charged up a fireball to incinerate her.

"MOMMYYY!"

Three shots suddenly rang out. The Black Mage stopped casting at once and fell back, dead. Two spots of blood appeared on its chest, as did one in its forehead.

I looked on, in a mixture of relief and confusion before I remembered the Alexandrians behind me.

"Kill him!" came the order.

But the attack never came. The soldier holding the bow was cut in half as a massive sword ripped through her stomach, cleaving her in half. The other soldiers had just enough time to see their new attacker towering over them just before he ripped them apart as well.

The towering man stood over me, sword resting on his shoulder as he offered me a hand up.

"Boy, you really did a number on yourself to wind up like that," came a familiar voice behind me where the girl was. "Still, thanks for the warning. You saved our lives."

I saw a man with short curly brown hair holster a gun as he helped the girl to her feet and guided her safely towards me, picking Vivi up along the way.

"So what's it been, a week?" he asked.

I just smirked. "Nice entrance Dante."

XXXXXXXX

As the battle came to an end for Trevor, his counterpart was resting, watching the scene play out from his host's subconscious.

"It'll be amazing if he doesn't kill both of us one day," Kaiten remarked.

He had recovered from the battle, but had opted to stay out of combat for one simple reason.

Kaiten hovered his way around the empty white room until he came to the familiar hole he had once created. He had been spending much of his time examining the dark room with the burning house.

There, one of the two memory books buried in the field of blood was still glowing through the thin layer of blood coating it.

"You glow when his anger flourishes," Kaiten said to the book. "Yet I still have no idea what you are."

As Kaiten hovered over the books, he came to a conclusion.

"If you're what I think you are, then you're the reason the host gets so angry. Maybe a deeply buried rage? Or some sort of personal issue."

The book's glow began to fade, matching the surrounding darkness.

"And if that's the case, we need to find out what happened so that he doesn't give in to his anger and follow the old men's plan."

Kaiten came closer to the book.

"Alright, I'll help with this one," he said. "But it had better not get me killed."

Kaiten reached through the blood and grabbed the cover of the book.

"Haven't done something like this in a while."

But before he could open it, the book began to glow again. Kaiten had just enough time to back out before a ball of light shot out of the book, missing him by inches.

"Shit!" Kaiten looked back in time to see another attack aim for him. Again, he barely dodged it. "Why would a memory have a defense system?"

This time, several balls of light swarmed out of the book. They flew up before redirecting and shot towards Kaiten.

The Terran knew better than to stick around and flew backwards as well. The defenses chased him around the room for a moment before he made a break for the hole in the ceiling. Kaiten landed away from the hole and materialized a sword, waiting for the next assault.

But the attack never came. The glowing spheres shot out of the hole and converged in mid-air before falling back towards the hole where they stopped. They grew brighter, and before Kaiten knew it, they had sealed the hole.

"What the hell?"

Kaiten slowly walked back to the spot where the hole once was. The floor was solid once again. Considering the hassle he had just been through, he wasn't entirely crazy on getting back in.

"Damn. This guy's got issues."

XXXXXXXX

"So how long have you guys been out here like this?" I asked.

"Not long," Dante said. He was busy searching through a pack of supplies. "After you warned me to stay out of the Industrial District, I started staying with Wayne. He lives just a few blocks from here."

"And your new gun?"

Dante pulled out the gun he had used earlier. It was similar to what he had used for the Festival of the Hunt, but it had six chambers. "Latest model," he explained. "I wasn't able to use it during the Festival because it kept getting jammed. I only figured out that I had to rebuild the gear-shift in the chamber barrel a few days ago."

"Uh… okay…" I muttered.

"Here we go!" Dante said, finally pulling out a potion. I took it and laid still as I downed the vial. I heard my bones crack and pop as they reset into place. It was uncomfortable, but at least I could walk again. I stood and tried putting weight on my foot. There wasn't any pain at all.

"So you've been fighting the Alexandrians this whole time?"

"Ever since they flooded into the Business District," Dante explained. "Wayne and I saw that they were capturing all the people they could so that they could put them into prisons."

"Probably so they could keep the out of the way," I surmised. "But why did you bring this lug around?" I asked, pointing behind myself.

"Hey!" Uzu complained. He brought his giant claymore down and pressed the tip of the blade beside my leg, probably to intimidate me.

"I ran into Uzu as he was fighting off some Black Mages," Dante said. He laughed as he said, "He was cutting through them like paper. He's pretty good to have as support."

Uzu just grunted.

"Anyway, we need to get this one to Wayne's shop," Dante said, indicating the little girl. "He has a storage shed underground. We can hide her and anyone else we find there until this is over." Dante kneeled down so he was eye level with the girl. "Hey, can you tell me your name?"

The girl just hid her face behind her bear.

"She's shy," Uzu said. "Let's just get her back before anything tries to hurt her again."

"Aww… Uzu's good with kids," I teased. "Inn't that cuuute?"

"If you don't shut the hell up right now I'm going to pluck off your toes and feed them to a sparrow."

"Guys, enough!" Dante scolded. "Wayne's waiting for us. We need to get moving."

It felt good to move without a crutch again. The rush I had been in to get to Lindblum while using it had left a real impression on me. My shoulder still felt sore from the crutch digging into my skin.

The girl walked along with us slowly. She seemed to keep her distance as far from Vivi as she could. I tried to part them by nudging Vivi closer to the front so that the girl could feel better cowering behind Uzu's frame. The giant kept a careful eye on her.

"It's just in the next plaza," Dante reminded us. "Just keep an eye out. Wayne said he was going to set up a few traps around his shop."

"Traps?" I asked. "He's got a twenty by twenty workshop with a two ton smelter fixed to the wall. What kinds of traps can he really have?"

My questions was answered by a scream coming from the next plaza. Uzu picked up the girl and the lot of us ran, only to see another four-woman Alexandrian squad attacking Wayne's shop. Well, three of them were. One soldier was screaming in pain with excessive burns over half her body.

Then, I saw Wayne, outfitted in light armor and holding a trident low in front of himself. He looked bored or tired. He must have been working to keep everyone safe.

"We were trying to be nice!" one of the Alexandrians yelled. "Just hand over the prisoners and we'll pardon you, but no, that wasn't good enough for you!"

"That's stating the obvious," Wayne said. "Now, get out of my shop before I kill the rest of you."

"Flank him!" the leader said. Instantly, the two other soldiers surrounded Wayne on each side.

"You will move or we _will_ kill you!" the soldier warned.

"Or I can do this."

Wayne stepped back and pointed the tip at one of the flankers. He flicked a switch by the handle of his weapon and one of the barbs flew away, straight through the soldier's armor. He turned and repeated it to the other soldier, sending another barb flying through her chest. The leader was so stunned that she didn't move in time as Wayne rushed her, spearing her in the gut and sending her to the ground. He pulled out the trident and spun it once, flicking off the blood from the tip.

"Well… I'm impressed," I admitted.

"You certainly know how to build new toys, don't you?" Dante said as we walked into the shop.

"I just build them," Wayne said. "You're the one who designs them."

Wayne walked to the wall and grabbed another trident. This one was missing its middle barb. "I think this is the one that shoots fire."

I blinked a few times, in awe. "So can the magic engineer design me some new short swords?"

"I'll think about it."

"I see you've found a new survivor," Wayne said, pointing to the girl who was now holding onto Uzu's head tightly for support.

"Yeah, we found her alone, wandering the streets," Dante said. "We found Trevor and Vivi trying to save her too."

"Oh yeah, I remember you now," Wayne said with a nod. "I see you're still using my swords, but how'd that armor I made do for you?"

"I fought Beatrix of Alexandria, she blasted a gaping hole in my chest, destroyed the armor and one of my lungs and nearly killed me, so I had to toss it."

"…Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

Behind us, the girl whimpered on Uzu's shoulder. The giant man glanced at her and, without a word, let her down so she could sit on the ground. She was tearing up as she collapsed.

"Is she going to be alright?" Vivi asked Dante and myself.

"She's alone now," Uzu said. "She misses her parents and the carnage outside scared her to death."

"What are you, psychic?" I asked.

"You could do it too if you paid attention for half a second."

_Ouch_.

As we talked, a woman walked around the corner in the back of Wayne's shop. She had a bandana over her head and looked like the kind of refuge that they were always putting in the paper back home.

"Excuse me, Mr. Quinn?" she asked, looking to Wayne. "I was hoping you'd let me go out and—"

"Mommy!" the little girl screamed, running for the woman.

"Clara!" the woman gasped. She immediately knelt down and hugged her rushing daughter. Tears of joy cascaded from her eyes as the two of them reunited.

"Aww, now that's nice," Dante said. "And here I was worried the kid would be an orphan."

The woman hugged her daughter, Clara, for a few more seconds before looking at us and thanking us dearly.

"Thank you so much," she said. "I can never forget this."

'No problem," I said with a wave. Dante smiled and Uzu nodded.

The woman stood up, still cradling the girl in her arms. "Come on Clara. Your father's waiting for us in the back."

"I like happy endings," Dante said. "So, I guess we should go out and find some more survivors. Are you two coming with us?"

"I'd like to, but we can't," I explained. "Vivi and I need to get to the castle and find the Regent."

"The Regent?" Dante repeated. "Why do you need to see him?"

"Because Vivi and I have info on what's pushing Brahne to fight this war and conquer the continent."

"What? You're kidding! How'd you do that?"

"We snuck into Alexandria castle to rescue the princess and overheard Brahne saying it."

"You… what?" Dante asked. It was obvious that he was perplexed.

"It's a long story."

Dante scratched his head for a moment, then glanced at Wayne and Uzu, then turned back to me.

"So we need to walk the few miles to the palace, breaking through who knows how many lines of Alexandrian troops, putting who knows how many other people at risk in the crossfire, tell the Regent this info of yours even though he's likely under heavy observation, then somehow find a way out of the city before Alexandria can retaliate?"

"Pretty much."

"Are you suicidal?"

"Only on Mondays."

"Will it end the war?" Wayne asked.

"It'll cut off Brahne's supply lines," I explained. "The Black Mages and the Eidolons, like the one that destroyed Lindblum just now."

"You know where she gets them?"

"I know her supplier."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and the sooner we stop him, the sooner we save everyone. Are you guys with me or not?"

"I'll go!" Vivi said almost immediately.

"You know this is insane, right?" Dante asked. "I mean, I'm just an engineer. I barely have any combat experience and it's only a few of us going against an entire army."

"Not to mention the air cabs are out," Uzu added. "We won't have an easy time getting to the castle."

"I have to stay here," Wayne said. "Someone has to look over the civilians here. If the Alexandrians don't find them, they might trigger one of my traps."

"Yeah, alright," I said. It would have been good to have Wayne with us. He looked like he had some unique weapons. "What about you two?"

"Yeah, I'll go," Dante said after a moment. "They destroyed my home and my workshop. I want a little payback."

"I might as well," Uzu said. "I don't have anything better to do."

"Alright, good," I said. _This should be enough_. Vivi and Dante gave us a range advantage, I had my magic, and Uzu was a walking powerhouse. We definitely had enough to punch through any Alexandrian forces as long as we were careful.

"Let's get moving," I said. "Alexandria's going to be hard enough to fight as they are. We can't let them get a better foothold in the area."

Outside, we could see the smoke still rising. It seemed to make way as the Red Rose flew slowly through the air. I imagined that Brahne was somewhere up there, looking down on the ruined city with glee. Her ship seemed to take the scenic route as it flew towards the main castle.

"That's the Red Rose, isn't it?" Dante asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

I watched in silence as the luxury ship cruised into the air dock. She would have the Falcon Claw and the collection would be half complete. I just hoped Dagger didn't run into any Alexandrian guards, or Lani the bounty hunter. Otherwise, Brahne would have had three pieces and the only thing keeping the universe out of total ruination was a 6-year old girl watching over the last piece in Maiden Sari.

I lowered my gaze and looked down the road to the castle. Much of the city was still on fire. On the other side of the plaza, the fire had burned away a shop, revealing a new path into another district.

"Dante, which district is next to this one?" I asked, pointing to the new pathway. "The one over that way."

"That's the culinary district," he said. "The chefs in the castle are going to be pissed that their food supply is getting overcooked like this."

"Does it lead to the castle?"

"It connects with the education district and then the noble's district. We can get to the castle through the noble's district."

"Good, then we found our way there." I started marching on, careful of debris as I stepped through the burned building into the culinary district. I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

On the other side, there were more bodies, mostly of soldiers, as well as several Black Mages. Blood covered the alleyway we stepped through, some of it reaching the second story windows. More buildings were on fire here and the shops and bakeries gave off an ironically sweet smell. I started to hate myself as I felt hungry amidst the carnage.

"Everyone grab a snack while you can," I said. "We're going to be at this for a while."


	13. The Dual Wielding Demon

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: So I just checked my profile on fanfiction and remembered that I put a poll up a while ago pertaining to how often I update. Apparently, 10% of you think I'm an asshole for not updating more often.

o.o

I'd better get to work, huh?

Chapter 13- The Dual-Wielding Demon

XXXXXXXX

The wind flew through their hair as they soared in the small skimmer. The engine groaned as the throttle was maxed out, pushing the limits of the lifeboat-sized flyer. They desperately needed to make up for lost time, so stealing a ride in Treno and flying to Lindblum was their best bet.

"Are you sure about this?" Dagger asked for the umpteenth time. "I can't exactly have a criminal record you know!"

"We'll be fine!" Zidane called back, just as many times. "Future ruler of a kingdom, I know. But we couldn't afford to lose Trevor and Vivi. We don't know where they are, or if they're safe. Lindblum is our best bet if we're going to find them."

Dagger gripped the railing, looking out into the distance. "I'm not so worried about Trevor, but Vivi probably wouldn't know what to do if he was lost."

"That's why we have to hurry!"

Zidane brought the airship up higher. In the darkness, it was hard to see the area around him. He was just glad the sun hadn't completely set, so he had something to light his way.

After they had separated from Trevor and Vivi because of the uncooperative Gargant, they made their way down the tunnel in Gargant Roo all the way to Treno. From there, they met Dagger's old teacher, Doctor Tot, who lead them to the airship dock where several nobles kept their expensive vehicles without the intent of driving them. They were there just for display. By Zidane's reasoning, it was only right to take one out for a spin. What was the point of having an airship if you were never going to use it?

The two sat in silence for a moment before Zidane noticed that Dagger was staring off into the sunset.

"Dagger, be careful. You'll go blind like that," he said. "Same thing almost happened to Cinna once. He was on the roof and—"

"Zidane, something's wrong," Dagger interrupted. "I don't think that's the sunset."

"What are you talking about? Of course it—"

"NO!" Dagger suddenly realized. "Zidane, Lindblum's on fire!"

"What?"

The skimmer's engine roared as Zidane banked, turning so that he could see the light as well. Indeed, it was Lindblum. Several of the buildings poked up from the ground, caught in the inferno. It was then the two of them notice the Red Rose hovering above the city.

"Mother…" Dagger whispered in sad lamentation.

"So Cleyra wasn't enough?" Zidane blurted out. "She had to attack here too?"

Dagger was on the verge of tears. "Zidane… please…"

Zidane didn't say anything else. He just turned the ship again, this time heading straight for the Red Rose.

"What are you doing?" Dagger cried out.

"Trevor told me about a guy who broke into Brahne's cabin on the Red Rose a little while ago," came the explanation. "She doesn't have a lot of guards, so we should be able to stop her and take any Eidolons she has laying around."

"What? I can't fight my mother!"

"We have to!" Zidane said. "It's to make sure something like this never happens again."

"But…"

"We won't hurt her," Zidane said, calmer. "We'll just knock out the guards and rob her. She doesn't have to get hurt."

Dagger bit her lip. The plan was probably for the greater good, but she was still unsure.

The skimmer soared through the air, finally catching up with the Red Rose as it veered towards the air dock in Lindblum Grand Castle. He flew to the back of the ship and took aim.

"Alright, I'm going to ram into the side right next to her!" Zidane said. "Hang on and get ready to jump aboard."

"This is by a wide margin the most insane thing you've ever done!" Dagger scolded.

"Get ready!" Zidane shouted. "Brace for—"

Their skimmer was suddenly hit. It rocked violently and Zidane struggled to regain control.

"What the hell happened?" Zidane yelled as he fought the controls.

"There are Black Mages standing with mother!" Dagger called back. "One of them must have hit us!"

Another impact came, striking the engine and cutting the power to the skimmer. It zoomed out of control, flying below the Red Rose and towards the castle.

"We're hit!"

"Dammit! I can't control it!" Zidane yelled. He grabbed Dagger and held on as the walls came closer at an insanely high speed…

XXXXXXXX

"Hey, you guys hear that?" Vivi asked. I stopped eating the loaf of bread I had found, stored in an unburned bakery, and looked up.

A small ship, a lot like the one the third Black Waltz attacked us on, was flying behind the Red Rose. A fireball launched out from the back and hit the engine. The small ship flew out of control until it smashed into the side of the castle, exploding on impact, before falling a few hundred feet to the ground in a burning heap.

"Oh man," Dante whispered. "That's a horrible way to die."

I nodded, returning to my bread. I didn't know the pilot, so I couldn't let my mind wander about ever casualty I saw. If I did, I'd lose control and go berserk. I took a breath and reminded myself that it was just another senseless casualty among Brahne's maddening scheme.

"Dante, how much longer until we get there?"

XXXXXXXX

From the Red Rose, Brahne fanned herself with pride. The skimmer's try had been another failed attempt to kill her. With her Black Mages and Eidolons, she was invincible. She chuckled to herself at how amazing her power was.

"Queen Brahne!" A soldier said as she came running up to the queen. "Dire news!"

"What?" Brahne sneered. "Can't you see I'm enjoying myself?"

"Uh… We believe that Princess Garnet was in that ship that just crashed, your highness."

"Oh?" Brahne said, with her eyebrow raised. "Well, that is quite the good news."

"Ma'am?"

"She had the royal jewel upon her. Find the wreckage and bring me the gem from her corpse."

"But… she's your daughter. Shouldn't we recover her body for burial, or something?"

"No!" Brahne shouted, standing up. "She betrayed Alexandria by stealing the jewel. Even if she is my daughter, she will be punished according to the law. Just find me that gem before you join her in death!"

"Yes ma'am!" the soldier said speedily, running out of the room as quickly as possible.

Brahne sat back down, calmly taking a breath.

_Just one more piece,_ she thought with an evil smirk.

XXXXXXXX

We reached the end of the culinary district without any complications. Horrible as the situation was, it wasn't a bad walk since the fires did a good job cooking some of the meat stores we passed.

Dante took point and spoke up, announcing our departure from the culinary district. "Welcome to the noble district ladies, gentlemen and Trevor."

"Hey!"

"Is it much further?" Vivi asked. "I don't like it out here."

"There's a stairway on the other side of this plaza up here," Dante answered. "Then we'll be safe from… well, not really safe, but we'll be in the castle."

There was some commotion from around the corner. I raised a hand to get the others to stop, then ran along the side of a building, peering around the corner.

There was a wide-open plaza with a very expensive looking fountain placed in the middle. There were only a few scorch marks from the fires and battles, but that wasn't what caught my attention.

Marching around the plaza were more than three-dozen Alexandrian soldiers.

I quickly pulled my head back and ran back to the others.

"We have a problem," I said. "There are way too many soldiers in there to fight. We have to go around."

"We can't go around," Dante said. "The buildings are all sandwiched together. We need to go through the plaza."

"If we can't go around, maybe we can go through," Uzu suggested. "Why don't we just smash through the buildings and break in that way?"

"The doors here are way too thick," Dante said. "There's no way we could open them without a key."

"I can open them," Uzu corrected. "Just give me enough room to rush a door and Ill break it in half."

"Couldn't you do that by looking at it?" I asked.

"Watch it, punkass."

Dante shook his head. "Uzu, even if you could open it, it would still make a lot of noise. The Alexandrians would hear it and would come running."

"So give me a distraction!"

"How?" I asked. "Should one of us run out there and commit almost certain suicide so the rest can escape?"

"Sure," he said. "I vote you go."

"Screw you."

"I'm with Trevor," Dante said. "We all go together or we don't go at all."

"Then what do we do?" Uzu asked. "Come up with something before they catch us!"

"Calm down and give me a second," I said. We needed a distraction and we needed a big one. It would have been nice to have a barrel of explosives handy, or maybe an air strike. I ran to the corner again and looked into the plaza. The soldiers were still around. Some were patrolling, but most were sitting around.

…_The fountain._

"Uzu, get ready," I said. "Vivi, I need you over here."

I smirked at the chance we had been given. A good distraction for this situation requires two things: sight and sound. If we could blow up the fountain, it would cause a big explosion and would make a very loud noise. Add in the water that would start spraying the guards at random, and we have an added element of touch, which would drive their surprise and panic over the edge, giving us more time. It was perfect.

"Yeah?" Vivi asked quietly.

"Blow up the fountain," I told him. "The top few feet if you can."

"Ok," he said. "I can try."

Vivi charged up his spell. Dante took out his gun just in case and Uzu braced himself in front of the door to the house we were storming into.

"Do it."

Vivi looked around the corner quickly and fired his spell. The top three feet of the fountain disappeared in a volcano of flame. Bits of shrapnel fell all over the place, startling the surprised soldiers.

"C'mon!" Dante called to us as the Alexandrians began yelling in confusion. Uzu had played his part perfectly and had smashed open the door. All four of us ran through it, closing it behind us. The soldiers were too busy running around like headless chickens and didn't see us.

"Nicely done," I said as Dante brought in a heavy chair to brace the door. "That should hold them off for a while."

"Now what?" Uzu asked. "Do we burrow through the walls to get through?"

"Depends," I answered. "Is there any way to get through the backyards?"

"The backyards are all one big courtyard," Dante answered. "After that explosion, they're probably out scouting for us."

"Through the walls it is."

I took out a short sword and started twirling it as I walked to the wall.

"Hang on," I said. "I don't know who well this'll work."

I lanced the wall and poured my energy into it, hoping the resulting Pulse and collapse of the wall wouldn't cause too much noise. The short sword vibrated for a moment as the attack unleashed on the wall. Instantly, cracks appeared everywhere. The entire wall seemed to fracture as bits and pieces fell away one by one.

"Huh," I breathed, sheathing my weapon. "I guess it worked."

I tapped on the wall, expecting it to fall forward. Instead, it collapsed and buried me in rubble up to my knees.

"Man, it's still weird seeing that kind of magic," Dante said. He offered me a hand and pulled me out of the rubble. "It's like you're some kinda prodigy or something."

"Well, I _am_ a genius." I joked.

We passed through the ruined wall into the next house. My first thoughts were of how well the nobles lived. Every corner of the building was lavishly furnished. Fancy paintings, intricate vases, and beautiful furniture lined the walls of the place. I considered taking a memento for a moment before shaking the thought off. Zidane must have had a corrupting influence on me.

"This place is neat!" Vivi said, looking around. He walked to the hearth to look at a picture of what I guessed was the house's owner. The fire beneath the mantle had long since burned out.

"Imagine, all this wealth and it didn't do a damn thing for them," Dante said.

"You're not going to turn this into a rich vs. poor thing, are you?" I asked.

"Not rich exactly," he explained. "It's just that the nobles will step over everyone they can so long as it suits them."

"They ever step over you?"

"A few have come to my workshop, insisting that I was lucky they would walk into a place that was so 'dingy and low class'."

"Well, you can't go and label one group just because a few of them are assholes."

"Oh really?" Dante asked skeptically. "Not even the Alexandrians?"

"Yup. For example, me. I'm an Alexandrian."

"And yet you're fighting against your own country."

"Yeah. Step back a moment."

I brought out my short sword again as I approached the next wall in our way. I stabbed it, releasing another Pulse on it. The wall crumbled into a heap, just like before. The next room revealed was almost as nice as the first one. Candles still burned in a posh living room, illuminating the dark room. A soft glow fell over the red couches that were still set nicely next to a hearth.

"I also have a friend from Alexandria who came here with me last week," I explained. "Her name's Dagger and she's probably the sweetest girl you'd ever meet. She's against Alexandria at the moment too."

"Where do you think she is?" Vivi asked.

"Dunno," I said honestly. "She and Zidane must've made it to Treno by now. Maybe they can reach Lindblum if they take the South Gate."

"Do you think they'll be alright?"

"Hey, don't worry about them," I smiled. "Zidane's better at getting out of messes than anyone I know. They'll be fine." I turned to Dante and said, "Anyway, we can discuss moral relativism and ethics of war later. We need to keep moving."

I smashed through the next wall, stepping back before the rubble had a chance to bury me. The next house was lit by the fires coming in from the windows as the surrounding buildings burned. It wasn't much light, but it would suffice.

"You know, I can't help but worry about this…" Dante said.

"Worry about what?" I asked. "Knocking out walls?"

"Yeah. I'm not an architect, but I don't think it's really sound for the buildings."

"So, what, do you think the roof is going to fall on us?"

My answer came when the ceiling began to creak and groan. A dip came in the ceiling, followed by quick snaps and cracks.

"Oh no," I sighed.

"Move, MOVE!" Dante insisted, pushing all of us along.

I had a pulse ready for the next wall. I blew open the wall, rushing through the rubble as it fell this time, making the way for everyone to follow. I already had my swords charged by the time I got to the next wall. It crumbled just as the roof began sinking in and collapsing behind us. Subtlety was out of the question as the enormous boom behind us was sure to alert all the Alexandrians nearby.

"How much longer does this go on?" I yelled, bursting into the next room.

"I don't know!" Dante said. "Keep going!"

The roof in the next house collapsed by the time we reached the wall ahead of us. I blew it open, just in time to look back and see the nearest wall behind us begin to fall on us. Everyone tried to rush out at once, barely fitting in time, as the wall fell down and the roof fell backwards. We all tumbled into the street, gasping for breath.

Dust blew in every direction and all I could hear was a sharp ringing. I took a few seconds to orient myself as I coughed some of the dust out of my lungs. I looked up and felt Dante pulling at my arm. He was saying something, but I couldn't hear.

"What?" I managed to cough out.

"Are you alright?" I heard him yell.

"I think so," I said, struggling to stand. I dusted myself off while standing on shaky legs.

Meanwhile, Vivi was coughing his lungs out. I reached over to pat him on the back and he hacked up a wad of spittle and dirt. He started breathing easier after that.

"Thanks Trevor," he wheezed.

"Well that was bound to get their attention," Uzu said. I was a little annoyed at how easily he seemed to withstand the building's collapse.

"The stairs to the castle are right over there," Dante said. "We can make it before more soldiers show up if we run."

"Check over there!" came a woman's voice. Clearly an Alexandrian.

"Go, go!" I called out in a hushed tone. All four of us rushed to the stairs as quickly as we could.

"What's beyond here?" I asked as we ran. "How do we get into the castle?"

"A gate," Dante said, right behind me. "They'll probably have it guarded."

"Then we'll break through and head into the station at the base of the castle. The tunnels there are so big we could hide out as long as we needed."

Our way looked clear. We reached the stairs without complication. It was about time something good happened for us. It was a relief to finally have luck on our side.

"Hey! There they are!" a soldier cried.

Luck could be such a liar.

Across the plaza, the two-dozen remaining Alexandrian soldiers began approaching us. They ran surprisingly fast, what with the heavy armor they wore.

"Get up the stairs!" Dante said. "I'll hold them off!"

"No, come with us!" I yelled frantically. "I can blow up the stairs! They won't be able to chase after us!"

"You won't make it in time!" Dante said. He pulled out his gun and dashed forward. "Trevor, please hurry! I'll be right behind you!"

I felt every muscle in my body tense. My stomach tightened from stress as Dante ran out, playing the idiot hero. With no time to spare, I ran to the top of the flight of stairs. Uzu and Vivi had beaten me to the top, so I pulled out a short sword and began channeling my chi into it.

"What's that moron doing now?" Uzu demanded.

"He's keeping them at bay so I can destroy the stairs," I said.

"How are you going to do that?" Vivi asked.

I finished channeling and the tip of my sword was capped with an Explosion charge. The unstable energy flickered with the occasional bolt as I held it up. "I thought of this a while ago," I explained. "If I'm gentle with the energy, I should be able to erode things without causing it to explode."

The stairs had two rows of three pillars holding it up. If I could destroy the pillars near the top of the stairs, then any weight put on them would cause them to fall.

"Why didn't you do that while we were running for our lives inside the damn houses?" Uzu asked angrily.

"Because I don't think I can go too fast. Besides, I've never tried this before."

I heard several gunshots in the plaza below. Several voices screamed in pain while others barked orders. I could only pray that Dante would make it back in time.

I walked down a few steps and carefully lowered my sword into the stairway. As I had hoped, the energy ate through the concrete, breaking down to the support pillars beneath the stairs. The stairs around the pillar cracked when it broke free.

_One down, two to go,_ I told myself. _Better leave one up for Dante._

I moved to the middle of the stairway and began destroying the second pillar when I heard the explosion. A man screamed and I felt my heart slow. I stood slowly, looking at the corner Dante ran around, begging that he was on his way.

"Trevor, why'd you stop?" Vivi asked.

"You guys didn't hear that?" I asked.

"Stop going insane!" Uzu yelled. "Finish it!"

"I think Dante's in trouble!"

"Forget him! He knew what he was doing was stupid!"

"I can't just leave him!"

"You have to! Now finish up so we can get out of here!"

"But I—"

"Guys!"

I turned and saw Dante running for the stairs. He was clutching his left side. He was limping on his left leg as blood from his hip ran down. The strap that held his ammo was broken. Apparently, something had hit his ammo pouch and ignited the bullets inside. He had probably been shot quite a few times.

"Dante, hurry!" I yelled, more panicked than I had ever been. "You can make it if you run."

Dante coughed as he began to speak, but was cut off as a fireball hit him in the back. He fell down face first. Blood immediately began to pool around his head.

"Dante!"

The engineer refused to give up. He pulled himself forward with one arm while the other stretched out for me.

"Trevor… Help me…" he pleaded.

I couldn't just watch Dante crawl pitifully, half-covered in blood. I pulled out my second short sword, but before I could rush to save him, the soldiers came running in and overtook him. I froze in mid-step as one of the larger Alexandrians stood over Dante and pulled him up by the hair.

"You pesky little muskrat," she sneered. She didn't hesitate for a second as she plunged her sword through Dante's stomach.

He didn't scream. He didn't even struggle. Dante just fell under his own weight as the soldier dropped him. I watched in agony as I saw the light fade from his eyes.

"No…No, no, NO!" I muttered as I watched in horror.

"We need to go!" Uzu said, grabbing me with his big arm. He lifted me up and carried me back.

"Let me go!" I protested. "We have to save Dante!"

"He's dead! We're leaving!" Uzu said. "Kid, blow it up!"

Vivi nodded nervously as he cast a spell. Seconds later, he destroyed the last pillar with a fireball. Bricks and mortar flew in every direction as the stairway collapsed, cutting off any chance of Alexandrian pursuit.

"No!" My mind went blank as I thrashed in Uzu's grasp. "Dante! DAAANTEEEE!"

XXXXXXXX

"Why did you do that?" I quietly demanded.

It had been several minutes since I saw Dante get killed. We had been walking the whole time, trying to get to the gate to the castle, but I couldn't hide my rage anymore. I snapped at Uzu angrily once I regained my senses. If I had been a little faster… If he hadn't gotten in my way, I might have been able to save Dante…

"Because Dante knew what he was doing," came Uzu's answer. "You didn't. You would have gotten killed."

"Screw you! I would've been fine!"

"You can barely stand. Your legs are shaking too much."

"That's…from…ANGER!" I growled.

We stopped walking and Uzu grabbed me by the shoulder. I thought about pulling out a short sword and stabbing his arm, but he punched me in the face, knocking me down with one blow.

"If you want to cry about this and go get killed somewhere, I'm not going to stop you. But god dammit if I'm going to let you kill me too!"

"You should get killed," I spat out as I pushed myself up. "You saw Dante. We could have helped him."

"Do you even know what you're talking about anymore?" Uzu said. He brought his claymore to my chest to stop me from rising. "Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices and take risks. Dante knew that and went off anyway. Yet here you are, acting like a little shit, whining that it isn't fair and shitting all over his death!"

"I am not—"

"Yes you are! He went and bought time for the rest of us so that we could escape. Or do you even care about your other friend?"

Uzu pointed at Vivi, who meekly looked away.

I growled again. As much as I didn't want to admit it, Uzu had a point. The worst part though, was that I should have been able to figure this all out on my own. I hated myself for being so stupid, careless and childish.

"Fine," I said. I slowly swiped Uzu's sword away and stood up.

I had only been on my feet for half a second before I tried to smack the giant with the flat of my blade. He backed up and I ended up scraping him with the tip as it grazed his face.

"Don't EVER tell me what to do," I ordered.

"Fine," Uzu said. He held a hand up to his bleeding face. "Know what? Go to hell. I'm out of here."

Uzu turned and went the other direction. I didn't care though. We didn't need him.

"Let's go Vivi," I said.

"But—"

"NOW Vivi!"

It didn't matter anymore. The storyline was almost back on track. Now Vivi and I just needed to find Zidane and Dagger somewhere inside the castle. After that, nothing else was important. We had to keep things in order.

The abandoned streets didn't offer us any challenge. Here, the fires were far away. The Alexandrians had left the castle in tact for the most part. I was suspicious about the lack of soldiers, but it didn't matter.

"Trevor?" Vivi asked after a minute of silence.

"What?" I asked, calmer than before.

"Um… Do you remember when we found the factory in Dali? And they were making all those dolls?"

"What about it?"

"Well… what you said really helped me back then." He paused another moment to calm himself. "You'd let me know if I could help you in return, right?"

I blinked for a moment before I looked down at the little mage. His heart was in the right place, but I knew that he couldn't do much. I just needed time to relax. My head was still spinning and the only thing pushing me on was the urgency of the situation.

"Sure Vivi."

"Okay. Because I'm worried about you."

"Nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?"

"Ssh!" I hushed sharply. I thought I had heard voices coming from around the corner. I pressed myself against the nearest wall and looked around the bend.

Eight Alexandrians stood guard over a very large gate that led into the castle. We had found the way in. Now we just had to kill the soldiers blocking the way.

"I'll go in first," I said. "Don't help unless I need it."

"What?" Vivi asked. When I didn't respond, he added, "I'm confused."

"I need to get this out of my system," I said. "Just stay back."

Vivi nodded and took several steps backwards. I leaned in against the corner and prepared to strike.

"But how can the gem have disappeared too?" I heard one soldier ask another. "I mean, their bodies are one thing, but the royal gem?"

"They could've been blown to pieces when their ship hit the wall," came the response. "What pisses me off is that I won't be able to collect the bounty on that monkey-tailed boy the queen was offering."

My breath caught in my throat. My mind wandered through the possibilities, looking for another option, but I couldn't find anything.

"Still, it's too bad about the princess," the first soldier said.

"Yeah, but why was she flying behind the Red Rose like that? They were bound to die if they did something like that."

I held my breath as I realized what they were saying. I remembered seeing the small ship fly into the castle, but I had never imagined that it could have been Zidane and Dagger. Now, everything had gone to hell. The storyline would never come back on track and the friends I was supposed to run into in the castle were dead.

I couldn't take it anymore. Dante, Zidane, and Dagger. My friends were dying all over the place. I felt revolted, scared, depressed and mad as hell, all at once. My emotions fought each other as images began violently swirling inside my head. I gripped my hair in a desperate bout for sanity, but I just ended up yanking several strands out.

"Trevor?" Vivi asked urgently. "What is it? What happened?"

I stared at him blankly as I fought back the tears.

"Vivi…" I said slowly. "Don't come around the corner until I'm done."

"What? Why?"

I ignored him for the moment, then turned and walked shakily towards the soldiers.

_I shouldn't be here,_ I told myself. _Everyone should still be alive and I should be home. I'm not cut out for this. I'm going to die if I don't kill myself first._

With both short swords drawn, I turned the corner and saw all the soldiers stare at me in disbelief.

"Hey, it's him!" one of them called out. "He's the one who killed Ruby squad by himself in the Business District!"

The soldiers all rushed around me, quickly cutting off any chance I had to escape. I didn't move a muscle.

"Surrender demon!" one called to me. "We know about your powers. There's no way you can take us if we all come at you at once!"

"Demon?" I repeated, staring wide-eyed at one of them. "You wish."

"You arrogant son of a bitch!" a new soldier said. "Alexandria won't back away from you!"

She went into a defensive battle stance and rushed me.

In less than a second, I brought a short sword up to meet her and powered up an Explosion. She ran face-first into the sphere of energy just as I let it explode. Her body flew backwards and hit the ground limply. She was missing most of her head.

"Enough!" said their leader. "Take him out!"

I let my rage take over for the moment, channeling the energy for a brand new technique.

The energy flowed to the tip, like before with the Explosion, but this time it formed into a long, thin sheet of power. It glowed like a purple lightsaber and extended my range by a few feet.

"Demon Saber," I ironically named the new move.

"For Alexandriaaa!" several soldiers yelled. They all charged at me at the same time, giving me half a second to respond.

_Fools._

I quickly spun, keeping my head low. Four soldiers were too close and were cut at the waist. They crashed over my head and fell down, spilling their entrails onto the ground.

The other three regrouped behind me.

"Don't back down!" one of them called to the others. "Don't let up!"

I turned around and changed me strategy. My right Demon Saber shortened and grew wider as I changed it to an Explosion.

One of the soldiers began casting something. I didn't have a chance to dodge, what with the bodies around me trapping my feet, and was hit with a Blizzara. The cold blast made it harder to move and knocked the air out of my chest.

"Now!" came the cry.

The remaining Alexandrians came at me again, stepping on their fallen comrades. I barely reacted in time as my Demon Saber sank into the soldier on the left. The other two didn't hesitate and swiped at me with their swords. I caught one of them in the nick of time with my Explosion, melting the blade away. The other managed to cut deep into my shoulder. I yelped and dropped the short sword.

The energy was still attached to the sword and I was too tired to move away. When the Explosion hit the ground, it was unleashed and caught all four of us still standing in the blast. I was thrown backwards and bounced off the pavement, then slid to a stop.

The Alexandrians weren't as lucky. Since the blade fell closer to them, the effect was worse. Two of them were blow away at the knees and the third, the one I had lanced with my other attack, fell away at the hip. I just rested for a moment, catching my breath. I shut my eyes. I just wanted to sleep.

I heard small, fast-paced footsteps rush at me. I opened my tired eyes and saw Vivi standing over me.

"Trevor! Are you alright?" he quickly asked.

I didn't say anything. I pulled myself up and rested my head on my knees. I rested for a moment before I took a deep breath.

"Are they really dead?" I asked gravely.

"The Alexandrians?" Vivi asked. "Yeah, they're dead."

That wasn't what I was talking about at all. Incoherent as I was, I hid my head in my knees and curled my arms around, hugging my legs to my chest.

I didn't want Vivi to see me cry.

XXXXXXXX

If I did things right, this was a heavy chapter for you to read. I had some trouble writing it and some of the characters ended up changing and didn't do what I thought they were going to when I first started writing, like Uzu walking away early (he was supposed to fight in the trolley station).

Also, I hope Trevor doesn't appear whiny to anyone. Realize, his friends just died, so he's taking it pretty hard. Combine this with blaming himself for Lindblum's condition and it's amazing that he's even still standing.

But I digress.

In closing, I have only to quote Robert Moran of Unforgotten Realms.

"Bring on the hate mail bitches!" LOLOLOLOL!


	14. Hardship

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Well, it seems a lot of people hate what I did in the last chapter, as I suspected they would. Fortunately, I struck a deal with the FBI and now I'm in protective custody, so any attempts to shoot me are futile.

Also, I'm sorry about how long it took me to get this posted. Life after college took more time to organize than I thought it would, including moving back home and finding a job (which I still have yet to do), so I haven't been able to devote as much tome to writing as I would've liked. XP Life sucks as a "mature" adult. Especially when you refuse to grow up. .

Also, as you may have guessed, I introduce Quina in this chapter. The funny thing though is that writing s/he and his/her got really old after about 5 minutes. So, I'm going to just call Quina an "androgynous" guy to avoid confusion and repetition. x.x

Also, if you have even the slightest interest in Monster Hunter, you should check out Ezakiel's story An Unusual Assignment. If you don't know much about it, that doesn't matter. He does a great job explaining everything and setting up the world.

Chapter 14: Hardship

XXXXXXXX

Brahne stood at the front of the courtroom, fanning herself and gloating over her current victory. She had taken the judge's seat and already had the jury on her side. This one wasn't getting away again.

"This court has found you guilty," she said, not hiding her smirk from the defendant. "For murdering countless Alexandrian soldiers, working against the kingdom of Alexandria, conspiring to kill the Queen of Alexandria, assisting in the abduction of the princess of Alexandria, murdering agents attempting to rescue the princess, committing several war crimes against Alexandria in the conflicts against Burmecia, Cleyra and Lindblum, as well as illegal use of unnatural powers, you are found guilty of treason in the highest order."

They were trumped up charges, all used to build up Brahne's case and give him a heavier sentence. The man in the defendant's seat just looked sternly on. He would take vengeance somehow.

"You are to be sentenced to death in the morning," Brahne concluded.

That was also a lie. More likely, they would stage his death, then leave him tortured in the basement of the castle for the rest of his life.

"Do you have anything to say, criminal?"

Trevor stood from the defendant's chair, keeping his gaze on the fat queen.

"Yeah," he said with a mischievous smirk. "You might want to try the Atkins diet."

Brahne didn't laugh. "Take him to his cell. He is allowed no visitors until his execution tomorrow."

As the guards grabbed Trevor's arms and dragged him out of the courtroom, he knew, this wasn't over yet.

XXXXXXXX

"Trevor?"

"Huh?" I said, waking up. I shook my head once, knocking the rest of his sleep out of my system.

Vivi sat next to me on the cold stone platform in the underground trolley station of Lindblum Castle. After we got through the gate, we were able to sneak around and get into the basement. The Lindblum soldiers weren't going to report us and the Alexandrian soldiers either never saw us, or never got a chance to alert anyone.

We had walked down the trolley tracks and found a new platform we could hide in and sleep the rest of the night. It wasn't comfortable, but I doubted anything would be for a long time.

"I'm cold, and I can't sleep," Vivi said. I noticed that he was shivering.

"We'll leave here then," I decided. "I'll be fine and you can sleep while I carry you through the plains."

"We're leaving already?" he asked. "I thought we were going to wait for Zidane and Dagger."

I cringed when he asked me this. I still hadn't told him that Zidane and Dagger were probably dead.

"What we're dealing with is a little more urgent than I thought," I explained. "Brahne shouldn't have been able to take down Lindblum as quickly as she did. We've already wasted enough time, so we need to get out there and stop her."

"But… I wanted to see Zidane and Dagger again…"

I felt my heart sink. I wanted to tell him the truth, but I didn't know how I could do it without hurting him. "I know, and so do I," I told him. "Don't worry though. We'll see them again, and when we do we'll all have to celebrate." I flashed him the biggest smile I could manage, but it only came off as a lopsided smirk.

"Really?" he asked, smiling a little.

"Yup! Ale for everyone!" I cheered eagerly. I had never really considered drowning my sorrows in alcohol before, but it was starting to sound tempting.

"Ok," I said, energized for the moment. "Let's get moving before any Alexandrians find us."

"Alrighty," Vivi said. He seemed better for the moment.

"Good. Now we just…" I trailed off as I heard someone walking down the tracks towards us. The person was muttering something too quietly for me to hear. I signaled for Vivi to stay put and stay silent. If it was another Alexandrian making her way down here, then I would have to take care of her. We couldn't have enemy troops following us.

As the person came closer, I heard the voice more clearly.

"Wreck _my_ city, will they?" it said. "I'll show them. I'll show all of them… Gwok, gwok."

"Wait a minute," I realized with growing interest. I jumped around the corner and saw a very large oglop walking towards us. I tried to hide my obvious disgust at the giant, hairy bug.

"Regent Cid!" I called out.

The ten-inch insect jumped in surprise and gave a little shriek. I stood, staring blankly for a moment as he recovered his composure.

"You! You're the friend of that boy from Tantalus. Garnet's friend!" he said.

"Trevor McEvoy," I answered. "Yeah."

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. He sounded angrier than I thought he would.

"We needed to sneak through Lindblum," I started to explain. "I overheard Brahne talking about her weapons dealer. Some guy named Kuja. I figured if we can stop him, we can stop Brahne."

"You know about Kuja too?" the regent asked, his buggy eyes wide. "Then you know you have to find your way through Fossil Roo to get to him? He's on the Forgotten Continent."

"Fossil Roo?" I asked. Now it was time to play dumb. "No. We were going to try to steal a ship and sail over."

Cid shook his head. "Can't be done. Alexandria has the harbor and very tight lockdown. You'll have to go another way to get across the sea."

"Well, airships won't work, will they?"

"No, but there is another way," Cid said, coming closer. I held back my instinct to squish him. "Less than a day's march from here is a place called Qu's Marsh. In there, there should be an entrance to a place called Fossil Roo. It's an ancient tunnel that crosses under the ocean. It's the quickest way to the other continent without a ship."

"Ok, and which way is it?"

"Walk out of the Dragon's Gate and head towards Gizamaluke's Grotto. It's on the way there. If you leave now, you should reach it by sundown."

He pulled out a small pouch of money and handed it to me. "Here, it's 5,000 Gil. It should help you if you need it."

"5000!" I blurted out suddenly.

"Keep your voice down fool!" Cid said in a hushed tone. "Do you want the Alexandrians to hear you?"

"Right," I sighed. I pocketed the money. I was sure it would help buy food on the next continent. "Is that everything?" I asked.

"Yes, now get going!" Cid said. "The Alexandrians are bound to patrol here. They're probably wondering where I went and Artania can't hold them off forever."

"Gotcha," I said. I turned and signaled for Vivi to follow me, but I stopped suddenly and turned back around.

"Oh, Regent, one thing," I began slowly.

"Make it quick!" he said as he began sabotaging the rails.

"A few hours ago, an airship crashed into the castle," I paused for a moment to collect myself. "Have you heard of any survivors?"

Regent Cid rose from the rails solemnly. "No, I haven't," he answered. "Why?"

"Have you seen or heard from Garnet in the last few hours?"

Cid stood silently for the longest moment. "Why are you asking me this?" he finally asked.

"Just answer me!"

Cid was clearly angered by my poor manners, but he shook his head and brushed it off. "I haven't had much access around my castle for several hours… but I haven't heard anything from her."

"That's what I thought," I said. I turned around and headed for the Dragon's Gate. "Goodbye Regent. C'mon Vivi."

"Why?" the Regent called from behind myself. "Did something happen? Is she in Lindblum?"

I didn't answer. I just couldn't. I simply walked down the railway tracks until the Regent's voice faded away.

We had made it most of the way to the exit before Vivi spoke up.

"Trevor, why did you say those things?" he asked. "And why are we going to another continent?"

"We need to stop Brahne," I explained. "The person who told her how to create the Black Mages is there. If we can stop him, then the Black Mages won't be used for combat anymore."

"So… there won't be anyone else like me?" he asked sadly.

"Not for war at least," I tried to assure him.

"Oh." He seemed to understand.

Another few minutes later and we came across the Dragon's Gate. The large iron door stood open and mist trailed into the station. The sun was just beginning to rise and the mist resting over the field seemed to glow. It was ironic in its beauty considering what the mist really was.

The dregs of souls.

"Come on," I said, marching out the door. I was really tired though, and could've used a few more hours of sleep, preferably in a real bed instead of in a cold underground subway system. I could barely process what was going on since my mind was still asleep. My body just seemed to shuffle along like a zombie as I dragged myself into the mist.

"Alright," Vivi said as he yawned. "I'm coming."

Vivi could barely keep his eyes open. He struggled to stay upright. We only made it a few feet outside before he fell over.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked, barely turning around.

"Y-yeah," Vivi said as he yawned again. "I'm just really sleepy."

Collapsing sounded really good about now. But I knew that if we didn't keep moving, we would never reach the marsh. I walked back and picked Vivi up by the collar of his jacket.

"H-hey! What are you doing?"

"You sleep," I said as I lifted him onto my back. "I'll carry you until we get there, alright?"

"Um… are you sure?"

"We need one of us to be in fighting condition if something attacked us. You should be able to handle it if you're rested."

"Alright," he said. He rested his head on top of mine and I began trudging off again.

I was able to keep a steady pace, despite my weary gait. Before too long, I heard Vivi snoring. I was glad at least one of us could get some sleep.

Time passed by slowly. The light came over the horizon and warmed the mist up a few degrees. It didn't make my trek any easier though. It just wore me out and made me crave a warm bed more than anything else.

As the day passed, I started looking around, trying to find any sign that we were getting closer to Qu's Marsh. I got so bored that I began checking and guessing where the sun was going to be in the sky.

After a while, probably in the afternoon, I heard a noise come from ahead of me. There was a rustling in some high grass. Common sense told me to wake Vivi up and let him take care of it. Everything around here was so weak that he would have no trouble killing whatever this was.

But since when did I listen to common sense?

It was better for Vivi to get his rest. He would be too groggy for battle anyway. I pulled out my sword and aimed it at the rustling grass. A second later, a Hedgehog Pie jumped out, snarling. The pink porcupine was drooling from what it was mistaking as an easy meal, flashing its teeth and claws to intimidate me.

I poured my energy into the sword and a Demon Saber extended out of the tip, singeing some of the hair on its chest. The monster looked at the glowing energy in surprise.

"Try it bastard," I hissed.

The Hedgehog Pie got the idea pretty quickly and dashed away without a word. I sheathed the blade and kept walking.

We still had a long way to go.

XXXXXXXX

The sun crept slowly over the western horizon.

Vivi had woken up sometime before and was walking beside me. I was on my last vestige of strength. My feet dug into the ground as I dragged them behind me, kicking small chunks of stinking dirt into the air. It was the first sign that we had reached the swamp.

Chest-high reeds and pools of stagnant water surrounded the single pathway through the swamp. I had plenty of experience playing in the mud from when I was a kid, but it was nothing like this.

The air seemed to waver as the thick stench began to choke me. The reeds brushed my arms and felt like feathers. It was more relaxing than I thought. My legs buckled.

"Are you alright?" Vivi asked, walking the narrow path behind me.

"Yeah… fine…" I muttered. Seconds later, I was face down in the mud.

"Trevor!" Vivi cried. He ran to me and knelt down.

"M' fine," I said. "Jus' tired."

"What do I do?" he asked skittishly. "Should I carry you?"

"Mmf. Jus' give me a few minutes…"

Vivi just chattered back at me, like a croaking bird. My eyes stayed shut, but I raised my eyebrow.

"Vivi, what are you doing?"

"I didn't do anything," he answered.

I opened my eyes slightly when I heard the croak again. I tilted my head upwards and saw the biggest toad I had ever seen in my life staring us down from the end of the path. It was four feet from foot to shoulder and had eyes the size of a grapefruit. It was a gigan toad, one of the more dangerous monsters here.

"Aw crap."

"I'll take care of him," Vivi said, standing in front of me bravely. "He doesn't look that strong."

"Fine, but don't underestimate him," I said. I tried to push myself up to my feet, but no sleep for a day and a half, combined with no food and a day's long march left me considerably weakened. It was all I could do to move my arms.

"Don't worry, I can do it," Vivi said. He had no sooner finished his sentence before he was blasted backwards by a bolt of water that the toad spit at him. The little mage fell back into a nearby puddle.

"Vivi!"

The toad croaked once more and started hopping towards us. I reached down and slowly pulled out a short sword, but by the time I turned back, the toad was already towering over me. I had only a second to react.

Then a new voice came from behind the toad. "Yummy!"

The gigan toad squealed in pain and fell to the mud. It kicked its enormous legs a few times before it finally died.

A big fork was sticking out of the back of its head.

Behind the monster was a large, round donut-hole of a man. Or a frogman. Or whatever the hell a Qu was.

Quina stood over the toad and ripped a chunk of flesh out on his fork. He checked the freshly bleeding meat and then ate it in one bite. I looked away to control my gag reflex. Seconds later, the rotund Qu spat it all on the ground in front of me.

"Yuck. It no taste good."

Quina stood about six feet tall. He was dressed in a pink overcoat with a white apron and a blue bib. He also had chef's hat on, which seemed strangely out of place with the streaks of blood streaming down his chin. He was also totally androgynous.

"So much for first impressions," I muttered to myself.

Quina suddenly started sniffing the air around me and then began sniffing me.

_I might have to reconsider bringing him along._

"Must find frog! Frog very good!"

Quina drooled a little, mixing with the blood still on his chin. I had a very precarious view looking up from the ground.

"Uh, who the hell are you?" I asked.

"Me? My name Quina," he said. Quina continued sniffing around me until he stopped over my chest. I prayed silently that I wasn't about to get eaten.

"You have frog!" he said suddenly. "Gimme frog! Gimme gimme!"

I was about to ask what he was talking about, but I felt something jump beneath me. I reached under my chest and pulled out a small frog. It wriggled a little. I must have fallen on it right before the fight.

_I _thought_ my heart was beating awfully hard._

Quina took the entire live frog in his mouth and began chewing it loudly. My stomach decided, at the oddest of times, to let everyone know that it was hungry. Quina stopped chewing and pulled a mangled leg out of his mouth.

"You want?" he asked.

I had to hold my hand over my mouth to stop myself from throwing up. "No, I'm fine. It's all yours."

Quina smiled and ate the leg.

"You nice guy. We friends now!" Quina said happily. He grabbed my arm and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder. "I give you yummy food. Master Quale very smart. He know how to make all kinds of yummy yummies."

Vivi followed as Quina abducted me and brought us deeper into the swamp.

Tall reeds and deep puddles were more abundant the deeper we went. I thought that we would be in a big lake by the time we got to his house. Fortunately, it was built on a large pile of flat mud, so we were safe.

The house itself looked like it had once been nice, but was weathered through a few hurricanes. Still, it was standing, which was good.

Quina barged through the front door and practically threw me at the ratty couch stuffed in the corner.

The house was poorly furnished. Aside from the couch, the only furniture around was a rug that had been ruined by water damage and a table with two chairs. There were more rooms than what appeared in the game, but it was still a small, single story house.

"You stay here," he said. "Me be back with feast." He ran out of the room and around the corner into what I assumed was the kitchen.

I leaned back against the couch until a loose spring poked me in the back. It was a run-down place, but it was better than nothing. At least we could rest.

"Trevor, I don't know about this guy," Vivi said. He opted to sit on the floor instead of the couch.

"He's fine," I said. "A little weird, but he saved us."

"I guess. If you're alright with him, then he might be okay. But… what is he?"

"He's a Qu. They're basically…" I paused as I thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not really sure. They're just different."

"Like how humans and Black Mages are different?"

"In that vein, yes."

The Qus came back. Quina literally bounced into the room, happily pushing a food cart in front of himself. His master, Quale, was behind him and looked very disgruntled.

"You pathetic Quina," he said. "Can't even feed yourself."

"But Master Quale, this man is good man," Quina argued. "He gave me frog."

Quale just shook his head and sat in the larger chair at the table. Quina pushed the food cart up in front of myself and Vivi. To my surprise, the food looked pretty good. It was some kind of ham with some vegetables surrounding it. It was still warm.

"Eat, eat," Quina insisted. "You hungry, right?"

Quina handed both of us an oversized fork and knife. They weren't as big as his fork, but it still made me feel smaller. I carved a piece of meat off and ate it.

"Hey, this is pretty good," I said. "What is it?"

"Axolotl. Very good meat."

I stopped eating for the moment and nearly dropped my fork. Axolotls were giant pink salamanders the size of a pig. Although, I didn't think they'd taste like pigs as well.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, no, nothing," I said. "It's delicious."

"Goody!" Quina said. He pulled out a frog from under the cart and started eating it.

It really was delicious, once you got passed the fact that we were eating a giant slimy tadpole. But I was so hungry that I just didn't care.

"So, travelers," Quale said from across the room. "What brings you here to our marsh?"

I finished chewing another mouthful. "We're looking for Fossil Roo."

"Fossil Roo?"

"You've heard of it?" I asked hopefully.

"No, never."

"Damn." Asking Quale directly was the best way to find it. Otherwise, we'd have to rely on…

"Quina!" Quale said suddenly. "Can't master art of eating just chasing frogs!"

"But Master, frogs very good," Quina said as he finished his meal. "Frogs here best! Better than Alexandria's!"

"Quina, you in darkness. Need some light. World big place. Many many foods. Alexandria just one kingdom. You need go out more, eat other food."

"Go out into world? Sound scary. Are there yummier frogs outside?"

"Of course! Many good frogs! All Qus love frogs the best. Eating frogs is key to growth. Qu marshes exist all over the world. Go eat frogs in other marshes. I promise, you get much learning." Quale finally paused long enough to turn to Vivi and me. "Traveler, please show Quina the world. Anywhere with good food."

"Actually, about that, we needed to get to the Outer Continent," I said. "Quina is more than welcome to join us. We just need to find the entrance. It's supposed to be in this marsh somewhere."

"Outer Continent?" Quina said. "Sound yummy. Maybe there more frogs there."

There was a long awkward silence as Quale and I glanced at each other, realizing that Quina would never really learn.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning, after a night spent on a couch with more problems than a mental patient, everyone was ready to go. Quina was bounding up and down the house, excited to see the new world and drain its supply of frogs. I was just glad to be off the couch, hoping I could find a nice bed of rocks so I could get a better night's sleep.

However, Vivi was looking back at Quale as he kindly prepared some food for our journey. We were still sitting in the living room, so it was unavoidable.

"You alright Vivi?" I asked.

"Um… It's that man," Vivi said. "He looks exactly like my grandpa."

"You mean Quale?"

"Yeah. Maybe he knows him. I have to talk to him." Vivi started walking into the kitchen.

Quale was still working on cooking for us. He didn't notice Vivi for a good minute. The mage stood silently before the large Qu finally saw him.

"What wrong?" Quale asked. "Something on my face?"

"Um…" Vivi began slowly. "Do you know a man named Quan?"

Quale stopped what he was doing for a moment. I thought he looked shocked, but he went right back to chopping up meat. "I… not know that bigot!"

Quale's strange response left Vivi and I exchanging glances.

"Grandpa Quan was a bit strange, but…," Vivi said. "How do you know him?"

"I-I no can answer."

"Grandpa Quan looks exactly like you Mr. Quale."

"Of course. We from same tribe."

While Vivi was stunned in a moment of confusion, I was busy face-palming myself.

"You really don't know him?" I challenged. I made sure to make it sound more like a dare for him to keep lying to me.

"No! I not know this Quan!" Quale shouted. He brushed off our inquisitive stares and went back to preparing food. I decided not to press the issue since Quale was kind enough to work and give us food for free, so I just walked back into the "living room" and sat down on the couch.

"Whatever," I muttered, right before I sat on a spring.

XXXXXXXX

Minutes later, we were out the door. Quina carried the food in a pouch on his back and lead the way, hopping excitedly. Vivi and I walked behind him as he cleared and flattened the brush in front of us.

"So your grandfather was a Qu, huh?" I asked Vivi.

"Yeah, I guess," Vivi said. "I was surprised to see Quina and Mister Quan. I didn't see anyone like them in any of the cities we went to."

"I guess they live as hermits more often than not."

"Maybe."

Quina had obviously been listening to our conversation. "We Qu very proud," he said. "We live alone to practice food making. Very difficult, but very helpful. Come to cities to cook only sometimes."

I was confused. "But wouldn't you get more experience cooking all the time in cities with better equipment and supplies?"

But Quina didn't hear me. "I smell frogs!"

Quina turned and dashed into the brush as fast as he could.

"Quina, wait up!" I said as I chased after him.

"Frogs! Frogs this way!"

I soon lost sight of the large man as he bounded into the thicket. The reeds were so thick that I couldn't see him no matter how much I tried. If it wasn't for the wide, crushed path that he left in his way, we would have lost him completely.

I ran quickly with Vivi on my tail. It wasn't long until we came to a clearing in the middle of the marsh. Here, there were more rocks and mud than grass. A stone doorway stood in the center of the clearing and led down an old, weathered staircase down underground.

Quina came walking up the stairs with a defeated look on his face.

"Frogs get away," he said sadly.

"Shame," I said, brushing Quina's problem off. "I think you found the entrance we were looking for though."

Quina turned and peered at the underground entrance. For a moment, I thought I saw him sniff it.

"Aya," he said. "First time I see this. We going inside Trevor?"

"Yup," I said. "It'll probably lead to the Outer Continent. You guys ready?"

Vivi adjusted his hat quickly and nodded. "I think so," he said.

"I not let frogs get away!" Quina said excitedly.

"Alright then," I said, taking a breath. I drew my short swords and stepped into the cavern.

XXXXXXXX

Okay, that's done. This isn't the best version that this chapter could have been, but I wanted to get this out before too long so that you guys knew I wasn't dead. I'll post an edited version in a few days.

I'm going through some tough spots in life at the moment. I'll update when I can, but between my novel not going anyway for a while, not being able to find a job, and some recent falling outs with my father, writing has had to take a back seat to everything.

But, rather than end on a sad note, I will say this: Quina is fun as hell to write dialogue for. XD He has the direction of a six-year old hopped up on sugar. And the grammar! It nearly made my spell checker explode! An amusing thought since I don't like my laptop.


	15. The New World

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: I did something a little different in this chapter. It's weird, but it might give a little insight into what I'm really doing with this story. ;)

In other news, my laptop died again.

(A tally is added to a wall next to six others)

I'm really getting tired of this crap, so I'm making every faulty piece of apple computers gear as public as I can. I lost a good bit of the story, despite weekly backing up info on an external hard drive. That means starting over from almost nothing. All because the good morons at apple can't build a hard drive that doesn't commit suicide after a few months.

And in other news, all in one month, my father broke his collar bone, got married, had surgery and now spends his days wandering around the house doing work when his doctor told him not to, so I have to cook dinner every night and make sure the old man doesn't kill himself. Just adding another excuse why I take so long to get my lousy ass to write anything these days. XP

On a lighter note, check out The Duelist of Dawn's story, Melodies of Life: Chronicles. It's a new SI with a twist from the usual SI's. And the combat's pretty good too, a lot of which because his OC is a melee fighter.

Chapter 15: The New World

XXXXXXXX

I was never a big fan of Fossil Roo in the game. It was big, convoluted, and you had to ride gargants everywhere. And I wasn't excited about riding a gargant again. But one advantage the game had over real life was that it was short. Twenty minutes and the player could be done with it.

It took us a week.

XXXXXXXX

**One week ago…**

The dark cavern opened up before us. The light from above shone through from the marsh. I walked in a few feet, swords drawn and I kept an eye open for anything.

"This could be worse," I mused.

An unlit torch was resting on the wall. I grabbed it and held in front of Vivi.

"Can you light this?" I asked the little mage.

"I think so," he said. He held out his hands around the tip of the torch and concentrated. Seconds later, a flame appeared and glowed brightly.

"Good job," I told him. Now we could see the cavern for a good twenty feet all around us.

The walls were wet near the entrance, but dried up quickly as the corridor rounded a corner. The hallway we found ourselves in was easily wide enough for all of us. Perhaps this used to be a major thoroughfare. Maybe I was thinking too much.

Quina seemed quite pleased by the added light. "Yay! Now we not bump into things!"

Quina culminated his celebration by pulling out a sandwich from the backpack full of food. He ate half of it in one bite.

"Hey!" I said. "Quina, you can't just start eating! We're going to be in here for several days! We need to ration our food."

Quina looked at me with sad, puppy dog eyes. "But… I hungry…"

I though he would have cried if I let him go without food. He looked so pathetic, I just had to give in.

"Alright," I said with a sigh. "Finish that one, then no food for a few more hours."

"Yippee!" Quina said happily. He ate the rest of the sandwich in one bite.

I just rolled my eyes as I started walking. The ground beneath my feet was beaten flat. I skimmed my foot along, trying to pick up dirt as we moved.

"Is something wrong?" Vivi asked.

"No," I said. "I'm just curious. This dirt is really packed into the ground and we're not that far from the entrance."

"Is that unusual?"

"I don't know, but since its this close to the marsh air, I'd figure it would be a little looser. The humidity should do something to it."

I looked back and saw Vivi staring at me. He kicked at the ground like I had done.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. It's probably nothing."

A loud creak echoed in the narrow cavern, followed by a very loud _CLANG!_ We stopped and turned just as one of the most twisted monsters of the game crawled out from a hole in the wall.

"Or… maybe not."

The grotesque Armodullahan snarled as it stared up at us. Its stubby, chariot-like body came with a ferocious maw snapping its jaws at us, surrounded by clawed arms so strong they could rip a truck in half. On either side of it were a lance and a shield. Bare sinew showed from years of decay.

_Is this thing… a cyborg?_

I didn't have much time to wonder. The thing roared and sank its claws into the ground. Its wheels span as it began to charge.

_Not good!_

"Frog Drop!"

I was startled to see Quina casting a magic spell so suddenly. I had almost forgotten that he could use Blue Magic.

Out of nowhere, a frog the size of a refrigerator fell onto the Armodullahan. It seemed to stun it for a moment, but once the frog faded away, it just revealed an angrier monster.

"Go, _GO!_" I yelled.

Quina, Vivi and I ran around the corner as quickly as we could. Almost instantly, the corridor widened into an enormous cavern. There was a long bridge stretched out ahead of us. A light blue glow coming from below allowed us to see everything clearly. We stood at a magnificent viewpoint.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy it long. The monster smashed into the wall around the bend just behind us and kept running right at our heels.

"Keep running!" I said. I tried to control my panic so that I wouldn't trip over my own legs.

Vivi clung onto his hat tightly. "What is that thing?" he asked.

I took a few breaths before answering. "Probably a machine."

"Can't we fight it?"

Quina panted as he struggled for breath. "My attack... no work…"

I gazed down the bridge to find the telltale hole in the ground that the game used to get rid of the monster. Instead, I saw the doorway on the far end. It would've been too narrow for the beast to follow us, and by the time it could break its way through, we would be long gone.

"Just keep moving!" I yelled. "We can outrun it!"

"At least… it not get worse!"

As soon as Quina said that, a long rail creaked out from the wall and stopped just overhead us. After a few seconds, it creaked again, only this time, dozens of pendulums dropped in front of us, swinging back and forth and blocking our path and threatening to knock us off the bridge.

"Dammit Quina!" I yelled. "You NEVER say that! It ALWAYS gets worse!"

We managed to dodge the first few pendulums, but they were getting closer together as we reached the middle of the bridge. There was no way we could outlast them and outrun the Armodullahan. It just batted the pendulums out of the way like flies.

I had no other choice. I pulled out a short sword and powered up an Explosion. I held onto the energy as tightly as I could and crashed into the nearest pendulum. The iron plate melted away and dripped to the ground.

"Stay diagonal!" I shouted. I ran to the far left side of the bridge while Vivi and Quina ran behind me and to the right. I held out my arm, aiming at another pendulum just as it swung back at me.

The Explosion made contact. The pendulum melted away like the first, leaving the way clear for the others to run through.

"This good idea!" Quina panted. "Now we no need… worry about—"

The Armodullahan reminded us of the even bigger threat following. It roared angrily as its clawed arms thundered into the floor. It rocked so hard that I worried the entire bridge would collapse.

We were so close…

"Guy! Run ahead!" I called out. "Dodge the pendulums and don't stop running until you're through the doorway!"

I started to slow down. There were only a few pendulums left. They others would be able to get through them if they were careful.

"What about you?" Vivi said as he passed me.

"I'll take care of ugly here," I answered, pointing backwards.

I still had the energy capped on my sword. We nearly reached the end of the bridge when Quina passed me. I took my chance and jumped, spinning around in the air.

The ground shook as the monster pounded the floor. It was almost on top of me when—

"Fall you bastard!"

—I sank the blade into the floor. The energy exploded and the bricked walkway broke apart. I felt the wind go by me as the Armodullahan fell into the hole and soon disappeared from sight. It roared in anger, but it couldn't do anything now. Seconds later, there was a crash, then silence.

I sat in a heap, tired as hell but glad we were passed that part. I took a deep breath and tried to unwind myself.

"Trevor!" Vivi called from the safety of the doorway. "Are you alright?"

I craned my head up and looked at them upside-down. I smiled and gave a thumbs up.

The peace didn't last. After a few moments, my thoughts returned to me and I realized what I had done.

"Oh… DAMMIT!" I shouted. I jumped to my feet and looked down the hole.

"What?" Vivi asked, worried. "Is it coming back?"

"No, the monster's dead," I said. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

I began walking towards them, kicking myself internally.

_I can't BELIEVE I missed a chance at quoting Gandalf!_

There was a still silence hanging in the air now. It was almost eerie. I could hear droplets falling in the depths of the cave. I stopped to look back at it as I stood in the doorway.

"_Nice view_."

I blinked a few times in surprise. _Kaiten? Where the hell have you been? It's been three days!_

"_I've been busy. This place is a mess_."

…_You're not screwing around in my head again, are you?_

"_More like _it's_ screwing with me_."

_What the hell is that supposed to mean?_

"Don't worry, you're fine."

…_Really?_

"_As fine as someone with your problems can be_."

_Ass._

"Trevor?" Vivi asked from behind me. "Are we going?"

I snapped out of the conversation and started walking towards them.

"Yeah," I answered. "Let's get out of here."

We walked through the doorway and entered another corridor made of dry dirt and stone. We didn't get far before Kaiten spoke again.

"S_o, we're traveling to stop some madman arms dealer and we're taking the ICUGT 4_?"

Like so many other times, Kaiten confused me.

_IC-what?_ I asked. _The hell are you talking about?_

I heard Kaiten sigh. "_Intercontinental Underground Tunnel number 4. It was constructed back when Oeilvert was being built_."

_So this was all Terran? The bridge and the tunnels and—_

"_And the security. Yeah, the monster you guys just fought. Armodullahan Mrk. III. Cybernetic. Very good at chasing down and disposing of unwarranted travelers. It was left here to stop Gaians from finding these tunnels and telling others about it."_

_You guys made that thing?_

"_You think something that twisted could evolve naturally_?"

I remained silent. It made some sense. After all, there had been some Terran shrines and artifacts left on Gaia. Oeilvert not being the least of them.

"_People used to use these tunnels to get to other continents. There were five in all. You needed security clearance, of course, but time has warped this place. It's not nearly as safe as it used to be_."

_People walked through here? I asked. Why didn't you just use airships?_

"_They didn't exist. It wasn't until after we started leaving that airships even became common. We used portals to get around between worlds_."

_Then why not cross the oceans in boats?_

"_Monsters. The seas used to have these enormous beasts that could bite a ship in half_."

_The game never had anything like that…_

"_Well, I wouldn't want to second guess some game makers. Heaven forbid they get OUR HISTORY WRONG_!"

I ran a hand along my face. _Whatever. So you were here before?_

"_No, this was long before my time. I just read about it in old history files._"

_Right. So what other wonders do we have to look forward to?_

"_I don't know. This place is so old that we might not even see anything else significant. It could've all rotted away_."

_Lovely. We can only hope._

XXXXXXXX

A week of wet caverns, long stretches of darkness lit only by the torch Vivi provided, and riding upside-down on gargants for small stretches at a time when we could actually find them. And we didn't need just one like in the game. We had to find three, in the same place at the same time. And finding them was one problem. We also had to get them to stop moving long enough that we could grab onto their husks and ride upside down until we got to another solid patch of land.

It was a miserable trip. In addition to traveling being a total bitch, there were barely any good spots to camp for the night. I spent my fair share of nights awake in a stupor, looking for monsters to come running around the corner.

Quina even got lost for three days. His gargant went wild and jumped off the path we thought it would take. Probably because it couldn't take how heavy he was. The cavern was so big and our gargants were moving so quickly at the time that we weren't able to stop and look for him. We waited as long as we could, but to no avail.

Fortunately, we decided to leave at just the right time. After two and a half days of waiting, we decided to move on and continue without him.

"But what if we waited a little longer?" Vivi pleaded with me. "He could've been right behind us!"

"Hey, I feel like shit too!" I snapped. "But if we don't keep moving, we're going to run out of food and starve in this place."

I was fortunate enough to have been carrying the backpack with food when Quina was separated from us. He had tried eating more of the sandwiches before it was time.

"But I don't like it," Vivi said. "What if he's hurt right now? What if he dies? He might need us!"

"Quina's stronger than he looks. I'm sure he'll get out of here somehow. Whether it's with us or not, I can't say, but he'll be fine."

This was the part of leadership that I hated. The tough decisions. Knowing how big this place was, we were probably never going to see Quina again. I could only hope that he was still alive so that it felt less like I was abandoning him.

Vivi and I walked for hours, through stagnant water, crumbling walkways and broken bridges. The darkness was omnipresent and engulfing. No matter what we did, it slowly cut off hope. With the recent loss of our teammate, Vivi was starting to lose it. I was so determined on just leaving that I was having a hard time keeping him going. My nerves were shot and I was always looking around for the next monster for us to fight or run away from.

But, our luck took a turn for the better. The MUCH better.

After hours of marching, we came across a large platform. It looked like it could have been a plaza at one point. Tall, stone buildings lay in ruins all along the sides. My guess was that this was a stopping point for the Terrans while they marched along this ridiculously large walkway. That meant these buildings were probably hotels at one point. Now they looked like they'd crumble if I leaned against one of the walls.

"This is interesting," I said. I waved the torch inside a broken window. There were only insects and dust inside. No monsters.

"Looks like we found a place to stay for the night."

Vivi's stomach started to growl. He clenched it, trying to quiet it.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm hungry."

"Don't worry, it's time for food anyway," I said. I knelt and took off the backpack. I shook my head as I took out another sandwich. A week of the stuff and I wasn't looking forward to any more of the stuff. It tastes like ham, which I was never a huge fan of before.

What I wouldn't have given for a nice piece of beef, or chicken, lightly basted in a savory sauce and served while it was still steaming. I closed my eyes and tried convincing myself that I was actually eating a chicken sandwich instead. The taste, the warmth, the smell…

_Wait, what _is_ that smell?_

I blinked a few times, hoping I wasn't having an aneurism. There was definitely something in the air.

"Vivi, do you smell that?"

"You mean you smell it too?" he asked. "I thought I was imagining things."

I dropped the sandwich back into the backpack. I could've sworn I smelled someone cooking chicken.

I looked around for a moment, trying to figure out what it was. I didn't see it at first, but I did a double take and noticed a faint light flickering down an alley.

I drew a sword and quietly made my way towards the alleyway. "I think there's something there," I whispered. "Get ready. We might need to fight."

Vivi nodded and held onto his staff. I held out an open hand, telling him that I was using hand signals. Again, he nodded.

_1…2…3…GO!_

We ran in, weapons at the ready. I charged up my swords and rounded the corner when…

"Oh, it you guys! Hi!"

I suddenly skidded to a stop. Vivi ran into my leg and almost knocked both of us over. I stared, dumbfounded, at Quina as he was roasting a griffin over a large pit. The fire was burning away in a small hole, which I guessed used to be a fountain.

"Look what I find!" he said happily, taking a bite of another chunk of meat.

"Quina!" I finally said. "Where the hell have you been? Did you do this?"

"Yeah," he said simply. "I was hungry. He go down fast. I only stab a few times, then it die."

There was one thing you couldn't deny about Quina. He was a survivor.

Quina tore off a drumstick as big as my head and passed it to me. He gave Vivi a large piece of meat from the monster's breast.

"Eat! Eat!" Quina said. "Need more food than sandwiches!"

I took the drumstick after a few seconds, then gave Quina a nod.

"Nice job Quina," I said. "We'd be screwed without you."

"I do what I can."

XXXXXXXX

As if finding Quina, decent food, and a good place to stay for the night wasn't enough, we were out of the caverns by the next day. The plaza we found must've been a waiting station used by the Terrans. We were only a few miles away from the exit. The last pathway leading out was a thin, broken path. The light at the end of the tunnel was almost blinding, but it was warm and inviting.

After a long, arduous week, we had finally reached the Outer Continent.

"Oh man, sunlight!" I cheered.

We ran out of the cave at full speed. I dropped the torch, happy and laughing as I fell to my knees. I was tired, but I felt accomplished.

"I can't believe it!" Vivi said, astonished. "We're on another continent!"

"Master Quale was right," Quina said. "There many more lands!"

The land around us was barren. There were a few patches of green grass, but most of the area was a dull tan. Loose sand blew across our feet. In the distance, we could see high cliffs, with one thick layer on top of the other stretching hundreds of feet high.

We were inside a massive canyon. We could only go forward. In the distance behind us, the ocean breeze blew my hair around. It was a refreshing experience, giving the energy to keep pressing forward.

"Where we go now?" Quina asked.

There was an ocean behind us, cliffs all around us, and only a valley in front of us. Our path was obvious.

"We go that way," I said after a few seconds. "We might be able to get around the cliffs and find something that—"

"You'll find nothing."

The new voice surprised us. I spun around quickly and saw a silhouette standing on top of the tunnel entrance we just left. A woman's figure and long hair stood proudly, holding the biggest axe I had ever seen before. She jumped, landing a few feet in front of us. She swung her axe down, nearly hitting Vivi. The heavy weapon landed with such force that it cracked the ground. It must've weighed as much as she did.

She stood, wearing a bizarre yellow shirt that covered little more than her shoulders and chest, as well as a blood-red skirt. Her waist-length hair blew behind her as she flicked a strand of it over her ear. Her eyes were cold, like a serial killer's.

"Lani," I whispered. I stepped to the front of the group and slowly pulled out my short swords.

"So my prey knows me," she smirked. "The Queen of Alexandria told me to find you." She looked at Vivi. "You must be the defect I'm supposed to kill." She lifted her axe in one hand and aimed it at me. "And you must be the punk with the mutant powers that I've been told to torture."

"Punk?" I repeated. It took me a few seconds to remember. "Oh, right! Because Brahne needed a beauty coma!"

"Ooh! Ooh! What about me?" Quina said excitedly.

Lani raised an eyebrow. "I don't know who the hell you are, but I might as well kill you while I'm here."

Quina frowned, disappointed. "Aww… That no fun."

"Enough of this!" Lani said. "My orders are to kill you. And you won't get away like the princess or the monkey did."

I froze, completely shocked for a moment. "What… did you just say?"

"DIE!"

Lani pulled her axe back and swung it over her shoulder. I was barely able to block it at the last second.

"Give up now and I'll make it quick," Lani taunted.

"Where did you see them?" I struggled to ask. Lani was stronger than she looked. "Tell me!"

She didn't answer. She just held out her hand a few inches from my chest and blasted me with an Aero spell. A gust of wind pushed me back, causing me to roll along the ground for a short distance.

"That was just a small taste of my power," Lani said. "Just hold still. It'll be over in a minute."

She started walking towards me, bouncing her axe in her hand. She would have made it all the way to me if Quina didn't intervene.

A blast of water shot out at our attacker, soaking her from head to toe and knocking her to her rear.

"You make me mad!" Quina said, angrily.

Lani blinked a few times, stunned and disgusted. "Did you just spit on me?"

Her answer came as a lightning bolt crashing down on her. It engulfed her completely in a show of light and power. After a few seconds, it stopped, leaving her smoking and pissed off. Vivi was holding his staff in front of himself.

"I'm stronger than you think!" he yelled.

"You stupid little kid…"

Vivi responded again with magic. A block of ice formed over Lani's body and sprouted several branches of icicles. It shattered, cutting her all over. She was left panting quickly.

"I'll admit, you're tougher than I thought," she breathed, "But you're still not good enough."

Her hand light up a bright white and her whole body glowed for a moment. Her cuts and bruises faded away and she began to chuckle.

"I'll take you out in one stroke."

Lani rose and held her axe above her head. I recognized the move from the game. I had been impressed by the magic show Vivi and Quina, so I hadn't been as involved as I should have been. But once I saw the others in trouble, I jumped to my feet.

Lani began a quick somersault. She launched herself towards Vivi and Quina, twisting at the last second to cleave them both. They both closed their eyes as she swung…

_CLANG!_

I caught Lani's axe in an X-guard. My short swords were crossed across my face with the very tip of the axe pressing against my forehead.

"Where are Zidane and Dagger?" I demanded again. A stream of blood trickled down my face from the axe.

Lani just scoffed. "You're way too persistent for your own good."

My anger reached a new height. The area seemed to crackle with energy, like I was tearing apart the air itself.

"Then say goodbye to your axe!"

I powered up my swords to turn transform them into Demon Sabers. The glowing energy cracked like lightning at first, then cut into the bounty hunter's axe. There was barely any resistance as the magic cut the giant weapon clean in two. The top half fell free and landed so hard that it stuck straight up in the ground.

Lani was dumbfounded. She backed up, tightly clutching what little she had of her axe.

"So… this is what they warned me about," she said. "You really are a freak."

"Takes one to know one chubby," I said.

I swear I saw a vein twitch in Lani's head just then.

"I don't need my axe to kill you."

Lani threw her axe into the ground and stretched out her arms. I didn't even notice the magic until it was too late.

What little water there was in the ground was summoned at our feet. It shot up at us, surrounding all three of us. Soon, we were swallowed up and couldn't move or breathe. The magic was so strong that I could barely summon any energy for an attack.

"There," Lani said. "Now you can drown slowly. I tried to finish you quickly, but you didn't want it."

_Dammit_, I thought. _I can't die from something this lame!_

"_Hang on,_" I heard Kaiten say. "_I can get her."_

I didn't bother arguing. Kaiten quickly took control over my body and I felt my consciousness sink.

Kaiten worked quickly. He powered up the short swords and took aim. He strained against the water, pulling so hard that it felt like he was draining my strength as well. Almost immediately, he launched an Arc right at our assailant. The crescent-shaped disc broke through the water bubble and went for Lani's legs. If she didn't jump at the last second, she would have lost it.

As it was, all she lost was control over her magic. We were released and fell to the ground. Kaiten wasted no time in getting up and approaching Lani.

"You're a monster," she said. "That's the only explanation."

"I'm a lot of things. Get your weapon," Kaiten said in one breath.

"Forget it," Lani spat out. "We'll continue this some other time. Good luck surviving out here."

Lani threw down a smoke bomb and jumped away, running back into the Fossil Roo.

"That was brief_,_" Kaiten complained. He gave up control and I felt my senses come back. "_Next time call me when there's someone interesting to fight._"

"You better run!" Quina called out after Lani.

"What do we do now Trevor?" Vivi asked.

I knelt down, taking a seat in the sand. "That woman said she ran into Zidane and Dagger. They might still be in Fossil Roo."

"So, are we going to wait for them?"

"Yup."

I carved a 'Z' and 'D' into the sand. Last week, I was convinced that they were both dead. Now it looked like there was a chance they were alive somehow. I was going to have to have a long talk with them about what the hell had happened.

"These friends of yours?" Quina asked.

"Yeah, we've been traveling with them," I explained. "They should've been with us when we met you, but some things got mixed up."

"Oh, that too bad." Quina took a few steps around, probably looking for more food. Suddenly, he jumped and seemed agitated.

"Is something wrong Quina?"

"You no smell?" he asked quickly.

"Uh… what?"

"It bad smell! We must leave!"

"Quina, what are you talking about?"

I rose, trying to calm the panicked Qu, but that's when I saw them. A flock of griffins were making their way towards us. Way too many to fight. I tried to figure out what it was, but then I figured it out.

The smoke bomb Lani dropped wasn't really a smoke bomb. It was bait meant for attracting monsters. And right now, we probably smelled really good.

"Fantastic," I muttered.

Vivi back up to me as the griffins came closer. "Trevor?"

I looked around. They were coming from everywhere but the canyon ahead.

"Start running you guys," I ordered. "I'll catch up as soon as I can."

"But—"

"GO!"

Vivi and Quina glanced at me for a moment, then took off.

I pulled my short sword out and stabbed it into the ground. I only had seconds to work. I began carving lines as neatly as I could into the dirt. It was tough and hard to work with, but anything I carved would stay for days and wouldn't get weathered away for a while.

I finished just as the first griffins were almost on top of me. I had to swipe at the first one to make it back off. They started to overwhelm me, but I powered up an Explosion and drove it into the ground.

A huge cloud of dust rose up and gave me cover. The griffins, now blind and confused by the smell, paused to look around. I was already running.

I was able to get away without the giant birds chasing me. Vivi and Quina were waiting for me. They picked up the pace again and we all ran in stride.

"Where now?" Vivi said. "They can still chase us!"

"Look up there!" I said, pointing above the cliffs.

Far above us, there was a large structure, like an enormous bridge. Resting on top of it was a city. The home of the Dwarves.

"What is that?" Vivi asked.

"It looks like gysahl pickle!" Quina said.

"It's a city!" I said. "We'll get there and wait for Zidane and Dagger!"

"Maybe they have yummy-yummies!" Quina mused.

"And warm beds?" Vivi asked hopefully.

"It has all that, but we won't get any of it if we're eaten," I said. "Keep running and we should be there by tomorrow."

I relaxed as we continued running. Maybe now we could get the storyline back on track.

Back at the exit to Fossil Roo, the griffins had dispersed. The sand shifted and piled in waves as the ocean breeze blew. A long arrow pointed down to the canyon that hours ago, Trevor, Vivi and Quina had run down. The sun began to set, but the message carved into the earth was still clearly seen.

Z + D

Meet us at Conde Petie.

T + V

XXXXXXXX

Sometimes you can't write for a week, and sometimes you stay up until 4 in the morning writing (have you ever tried that? It's maddening!). But, the important thing is that I'm done with another chapter, so you all have one less reason to burn my house down.

At least until the next big cliffhanger. .

Oh, and about the Zidane and Dagger thing… you're welcome. -.-


	16. Interlude Darkest Day

Interlude- Darkest Day

Well, here we have it. September 9, 2009. 9/9/09. And at about 9 AM, if I timed it correctly. I wanted to do something special for today. More than just go see the movie, 9 (which really kicks ass. Go watch it. Now!!!)

I could've written the next chapter, but with only a week to do it in, it would be rushed, short, and ugly. Three traits that I don't like to have in my writing. So instead, I thought I'd do something different.

Normally, I don't think I'm supposed to do this, but what the hell. 9 _is_ my lucky number, and with this many 9's going around, I'll probably be fine. XD

I've decided to let you guys see what other writing has been taking so much of my time. That's right, you're getting a premier chance to read what I hope will be part of a best selling series. XD Please feel free to tell me how awesome/incredible/damn good it is, and feel free to leave criticism.

I'm still working on some chapters, but I think I'm comfortable with the first one, so you guys get to read it before the general public. Just make sure to buy a dozen copies when the books come out and make your friends and family do the same.

And yes, this is a shameless plug for my novels.

This is chapter one (Darkest Day) of the soon-to-be hit series, Luminarium.

Enjoy.

----------------

It was raining.

The sky had been draped over with dark clouds ever since lunch. The ground was soaked and puddles slowly drained into the gutters. Even after a few hours, the storm showed no sign of letting up.

Travis Cassius stood alone in the back parking lot, looking up into the sky. As the other students dashed out of Robert Willington Middle School, trying to leave school as quickly as possible, Travis was smiling, absorbed in the moment. His short brown hair was matted back and his clothes were completely drenched.

"What a nice day out," he said.

"Travis!"

Travis turned and saw his friend Trevor Hansen running towards him. Trevor flicked a few strands of hair that were tickling his nose out of his face.

The two boys had been friends ever since they learned to walk and were known for causing the occasional uproar in class. While Travis was the eccentric one who could rile any teacher at any moment, Trevor was the slightly lazy one who always supported him, which usually infuriated the teachers further.

"You said we weren't going to need umbrellas today!" Trevor said.

"And we don't!" Travis defended. "It's just raining. It's not like it'll hurt you."

"Excuse me for being normal." Trevor reached into his backpack, sifted through the three textbooks he had to read for class, punishment for his and Travis' latest scheme, and pulled out an umbrella. "Good thing I stopped listening to you a while ago."

"Feh. Pansy." Travis breathed with a chuckle.

The two of them walked out of the parking lot and headed home. The sidewalk they walked along was adjacent to thick woods which kept them somewhat covered. Across the road next to them were suburbs and apartments. It was a nice part of town.

"We should make sure not to annoy Mrs. Flannegan again," Trevor said as they walked. "These books are a pain in the ass to carry."

"You mean Mrs. Flabbygan? Please, we just helped her get some much needed exercise. She's gotta weigh over three hundred pounds."

"Making the teacher run to the principal's office doesn't count."

"Says who?"

"You did two months ago, remember? We had that contest to see who could get her to run the fastest and you said I didn't win because she ran to the principal's office."

"You didn't win because she found a shorter route there!"

"Oh, shut up!"

The deluge continued to hound Trevor as they came to the crosswalk at the first intersection. A car drove by quickly and hit a puddle by the sidewalk, splashing both boys.

"Hey!" Trevor protested. Then in a whisper said, "Freaking idiot."

"Will you relax?" Travis said, still enjoying the rain. "It's not that big a deal."

"By the way, does your mom know you're taking a second shower?"

"Eh, she'll be fine." Travis laughed for a moment as he cupped his hands together, collecting rainwater. "This is nothing like what my Uncle Paul saw a few days ago."

"Oh yeah, he was in Florida, wasn't he?"

"Yup."

"During the hurricane?"

"Yup."

"Was he that close to it?"

"You were at my house the other day when he called, remember? The wind was so loud that we could barely even hear him."

"Oh, right."

The light for the crosswalk had finally switched and the last car zoomed by, way above the speed limit. The boys hurried across and continued as more woods spread along their side.

"So what was it?" Trevor asked.

"What was what?"

"The name of the hurricane? They all have names, don't they?"

"It was Maryanne. Don't you pay attention to these things?"

"Eh. I'm too lazy."

"That's you're excuse for everything."

"Because it usually works!"

Travis smacked his hand across his face. "It was one of the more famous hurricanes in recent history! It formed just off the coast of Florida, remember?"

"Oh yeah…"

"Uncle Paul says they're still not sure how it happened. He said it had something to do with a freak storm catching some rising air…something… I don't know. Anyway, it wasn't normal, so he might spend some more time in Florida before going back to Europe."

"So you don't get to see him?"

"He said he might come by for a visit, but I don't know if that's true or not. You know how weird he can get about his company's research. All that weather and stuff."

"Huh. Maybe I'll get to meet him for once."

"Maybe."

Suddenly, the rain picked up. Trevor had to hold his umbrella in both hands as a strong wind blew right into his face.

"Maybe we should take the short cut through the woods," Trevor offered.

"Just because the storm is having a hiccup?" Travis joked.

"Dude, come on…"

"Yeah, alright," Travis said in defeat. "It's getting a little heavy even for me."

Travis walked up to the line of trees by the sidewalk and pushed back a bush blocking a beaten deer trail through the woods. The summer leaves were completely drenched, so they offered little protection from the rain. Trevor held his umbrella carefully, making sure it didn't catch on any branches or twigs.

Travis pushed the bush back and quickly caught up. "It just sucks though, you know?" he said.

"What sucks?" Trevor asked. "That the rain is too much for you?"

"No, it just sucks for you."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"While you're struggling with that dumb umbrella here, I'm going to beat you home!" With that, Travis ran off, leaving Trevor behind.

"Hey, wait!" Trevor protested. He started after his friend, but as Travis predicted, the umbrella snagged on a low branch. Trevor swore under his breath as he did his best to free it while staying out of the rain. It didn't go too well and a branch dumped all its water on him before the umbrella came loose.

Trevor muttered a few more things under his breath as he folded in his umbrella. He ran as quickly as he could, swearing revenge against Travis for making him get so wet for so stupid a reason. The other boy was already out of sight, so it took Trevor a minute of running before he finally caught up with him. Travis had stopped along a bend in the path.

"So now you wait for me?" Trevor asked, still angry. "That's a change. Why did you—"

"Trevor… stop…"

Now Trevor finally realized why his friend had stopped. He looked from Travis' horrified gaze to a shadowy figure no more than twenty paces down the path. The figure looked like a man, but was clearly not human. It was grey and seemed faded, almost like a ghost. Most telling of all though was its right arm. It didn't end with a hand, but instead had a barb that looked like it was large enough to spear a cow.

"Travis, what is that?"

"Don't budge…" Travis whispered. "It isn't moving. Maybe it doesn't see us."

Trevor stayed as still as he possibly could. It stood with its eyes closed and looked like it was sleeping. Just looking at this thing, he could tell that it wasn't good. It had an aura about it that was callous and soulless.

"We should get out of here," Trevor said in a frightened whisper.

"No…" Travis said, just as scared.

"Please Travis… We just need to run down the path and—"

"No!" Travis said. His fear was getting to him. He didn't dare turn his eyes away from this thing, until—

"C'mon, let's go!" Trevor insisted, stepping back on a branch. The crack of the wood seemed deafening. An instant later, the figure's eyes shot open. They were pure yellow and shot straight through the boys.

It was too dangerous here. Travis realized that Trevor was right and that they had to leave. He began pushing Trevor down the path as panic set in. "Go! Ru—"

Travis didn't make it two steps before the figure had struck. The boy looked down and could only gasp as he saw the barb sticking straight out of his chest through his heart. More blood than rain was pouring over the dirt on the path.

"Tr…Tra…" Trevor was too horrified to speak. Travis looked up at him with pleading eyes, begging his friend to somehow save him. To kill the figure and get him to a hospital as soon as possible. Neither boy wanted to face their mortality, especially not like this.

Travis weakly tried to grab Trevor for support, but merely brushed his chest before coughing a mouthful of blood onto his friend's shirt and falling limp in the monster's grasp.

Trevor's knees finally gave out and he collapsed. "Travis…"

Its business done, the figure looked Trevor over once, then turned and walked away, dragging Travis' limp body from its hooked arm.

"Travis…" Trevor repeated. He felt his panic increase to the verge of tears. As they began flowing, something in Trevor snapped. He screamed as loud as he could.

This couldn't have been real. This thing was a monster. Travis was dead and was being carried away. There was no one around and they were deep in the woods where no help would come. It couldn't have been real. It had to be a nightmare. A horrible nightmare.

"GIVE HIM BACK!!!" Trevor yelled. In his panic-driven rage, he grabbed a nearby stick and ran to the figure, swinging it as hard as he could. The stick snapped on the figure's back and it turned once again. Trevor could only see those horrible glowing yellow eyes for half a second more before the monster swung its hooked hand and beat Trevor with the corpse of his friend.

He practically flew into the tree behind him. All the air was knocked out of Trevor's lungs. The last thing he saw before passing out was the figure, walking down the path again, still dragging Travis at its side.

"…Give him back…"


	17. Hametoon o' the Dwarves

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story. I also don't own The Lord of The Rings, though I goddamn I wish I did. .

Author's notes: I finally made some more headway in my novel. :D And all while my laptop died for the 8th time. :D And I only laugh at that because I lost almost no data this time and it's really costing apple. My vendetta grows more victorious.

Special thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I'm making good headway on my novel now that I[m passed the major introduction stuff, so if you liked that sample, the rest will be amazing when I finally finish it. XD

And finally, I've found a schedule that really works for me. As long as I write at least 400 words a day (it's not as easy as it sounds XP), then I can work on a chapter in my novel and a chapter of Shattered Mind, finishing a new chapter for you all to read about once a month. Something to look forward to, I suppose. XD

Last, but not least, Tabansi232 has finally come back and updated her story, Flipped Up Reality. If you want to see an even bigger SI than Shattered Mind, then her story is the right place to go.

Chapter 16- The Hidden Village

XXXXXXXX

It felt like we had been running from the griffins for days. There was only a sliver of light left in the sky. Quina was breathing harder than I thought he could. His tongue almost dragged along the ground. Vivi had tuckered out a few miles ago and was passed out on my shoulder. I felt aches in every one of my joints and would have killed for a comfortable bed.

"This should be far enough," I decided. I wheezed as I fell to my knees. The hard ground was far from inviting, but if we didn't get a camp set up, the cold night would kill us.

"Quina, can you set up the sleeping bags?" I asked.

"I too tired," he said. "I not even hungry."

I stared wide-eyed for a moment, slightly horrified.

"Never mind then. I'll do it," I said. I lowered Vivi to the ground gently, pulling his sleeping bag from my backpack. "Can you just get some wood for a fire?"

When I turned around, Quina was already passed out on his back, snoring. I smacked my forehead angrily. Being the leader could suck sometimes.

Quina had fallen on his backpack, crushing his sleeping bag, and incidentally the remainder of our food. I couldn't get it out from underneath him and something told me that waking him would be impossible. I took my sleeping bag out and opened it up, spreading it over him like a blanket.

Making a fire would have been impossible without Vivi, and the little guy was so tired that I didn't want to wake him. I just tried to look on the bright side and realized that it would be harder for monsters to find us now.

The ground was cool now, but it would be freezing in a little while. I sat next to Vivi for a moment before opening his sleeping bag. I laid down next to him and spread it over the both of us, making sure he had a fair share.

I was asleep in minutes.

XXXXXXXX

I had the dream again.

The large house burned away in front of me across the bloody field.

"Oh no," I said with an aggravated sigh. "Not this again."

The blood stuck to my shoe as I tried to walk away. I had seen this image too much already and still wasn't any closer to figuring out what it was. I wanted as little to do with this as possible.

As I turned around, I saw a fence stretched out as far as I could see, from one end of the dark horizon to the other. There was a gate in front of me. It was a standard, chain-link fence. Nothing special about it. But somehow, it felt familiar. It was only then that I noticed the small green shed that was beside me. I looked at it, wondering how I had missed it before. Maybe it was only there recently.

"The hell is going on?" I wondered.

Suddenly, I felt something from behind me. I had a sense that something behind me needed help. I turned and saw the burning building, almost glowing with the black sky behind it. I walked towards it, curious about who was calling me.

XXXXXXXX

I woke suddenly, taking a deep breath. The sun was already high above the horizon, beating down on us. It was probably 9 or 10 in the morning. The air was already beginning to warm up and the ground was still slightly cool.

I pulled the sleeping bag off, groggily pushing myself up. Quina was passed out with his tongue draped over his face. Vivi was still curled up in his corner of the makeshift bed. I cracked my neck as I stood.

"Guys! Wake up!" I shouted. My teammates both stirred, shaking their sleeping bags off. "We need to get going."

"Mmf… I'm still tired," Vivi complained. He rubbed his eyes and rolled over.

"Monsters could come by here any time," I told them. "Besides, I bet they have nice, cushioned beds in that city we saw."

"Beds?"

"Yup. And warm food."

"Food?" Quina said, nearly vaulting up from under the blanket. "They have yummy yummies?"

"Quite a bit, I'm sure."

"Why we waiting?" Quina said. He messily rolled up the sleeping bag, tucked it under his arm and ran off.

"Quina! Wait up!"

I yanked the sleeping bag off of Vivi, rolling it up as I ran after him. "C'mon Vivi!" I yelled back.

The little mage chased after us as fast as he could run. I didn't know how Quina was running so quickly, but Conde Petie was just over the long hill in front of us and across the plain. It wouldn't take that long to get there. For a moment, it felt like we were recreating the scene from The Two Towers, where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were running to Isengard.

I really missed TV.

XXXXXXXX

Hours went by without much event. After a week running around in the damp and dark Fossil Roo, running outside in the sunlight was wonderful. Even better, we didn't need to worry about any mist. There wasn't even a hint of any fog around us. Maybe it was the freedom of being able to run around freely, or the urgency of stopping Kuja, or maybe Quale's recipe from those sandwiches energized us, but all three of us were able to keep moving at a constant jog for most of the run.

It was a little after noon when we finally saw Conde Petie over the next hill. The entire city was balanced on top of tree roots bigger than submarines. The entire city looked like an obscure cube with a giant pickle buried on top.

I was busy in my own little world…

_They're taking the hobbits to Isengard! They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!..._

"This is amazing," Vivi said.

_Tell me, where is Gandalf, for I— wait, what?_

"What's up?" I asked, pulling myself out of the 400th loop of "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard".

"We came all this way and there's still no Mist at all…" Vivi panted. "I don't get it. I thought all continents had mist?"

"Keep in mind, no one's been off the Mist Continent in centuries," I said, unsure if it was true or not. "Maybe it's just the one continent that has it."

"Maybe. It's just weird."

"Yeah. So's that building. It looks like some sort of temple."

"It very delicious shape!" Quina blurted out. "Inside might have fine cuisine!"

He took off up the hill towards the city with just as much energy as when we started. He was over the hill and running into the city in a matter of seconds.

"That guy has a problem."

Vivi's stomach growled. "Actually, I'm pretty hungry too," he said.

"Then lets head into town," I said. "Maybe we can get you some brownies or something."

"What are brownies?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "Man you're deprived."

We walked up the hill together. The roots supporting the city were surprisingly stable. I had assumed that they might have been a little crumbly, or maybe frayed in some parts, but the whole thing was solid. In fact, it looked treated. The dwarves must have come created a special treatment for the roots to make sure they didn't rot or unravel. I didn't mind it though. Building an entire city on top of tree roots seemed stupid otherwise.

As Vivi and I reached the city gates, we saw Quina already arguing with the guards. For dwarves, these guys were some of the oddest-looking creatures in the game. They looked more like goblins with their green skin, short stature and enormous jaws. They dressed in heavy clothes. I had seen similar designs on documentaries for people living in the Andes.

"But I hungry!" Quina argued. "Let me in!"

"We cannae," one of the dwarf guards said in a heavy Scottish accent. "It's our sacred greetin'. If'n ye dinnae say our sacred greetin', then ye cannae enter Conde Petie, hametoon o' the dwarves!"

"But why?" Quina protested. "You weird!"

I had to butt in before things got out of hand. "Rally-ho!" I called out. The dwarves turned at hearing their sacred greeting. I had never mastered a Scottish accent, but I had seen Boondock Saints so many times that I had a pretty good Irish one. I just hoped it was close enough and that they wouldn't try to rip my throat out for "being Irish".

"Ye'll have tae forgive me friend," I said, desperately trying to remember my Irish. "He's a tad slow."

"Rally-ho!" one of the guard said. "Yer an odd-lookin' one. Where're ye from?"

"We're jus' travelers," I answered. "We were hoping tae stay at yer city for a few days before continuin'."

"Rally-ho!" the guards both said. "Yer welcome tae stay as long as ye like."

"Rally-ho!" I repeated. I looked at Quina and Vivi to do the same.

"Rhallie-who?" Vivi said nervously.

"Rally-ho yourself!" Quina said impatiently. He pushed his way in, then rushed off to find food. I apologized for him as I entered the city, dragging Vivi behind me.

"Why were you talking like that?" Vivi asked.

"With the accent, you mean?" I asked. "Because I thought it'd be fun."

The doorway, and the small section of the city I could see from it, was built from loose rocks. Some roots had crawled over the walls and seemed told hold it in place. The whole temple seemed like it was put together by one of the three little pigs. A strong enough of a gust and the whole thing would crumble. I had to remind myself that the dwarves had been living here for a long time and that the floors wouldn't fall out from under my feet.

The roots and rocks were the same inside. Big hallways spread out into rooms and other hallways. The whole city looked like an old Aztec temple, ruined and covered in thick vines.

"So, are we going to stay here for the night?" Vivi asked.

"Yup," I said. "Maybe we'll buy some food from here, if they have a market, then Quina can make us something for dinner. I'm getting tired of sandwiches."

"Like those… brownies you were talking about?"

"I don't know if they could grow cocoa here. No cocoa, no chocolate. No chocolate, no brownies."

"What's chocolate?"

I stopped walking and stared at Vivi, feigning a horrified expression. "What kind of a kid doesn't know what chocolate is? That's just wrong."

"Um… I'm sorry?"

"Not your fault, but as soon as we get back to Alexandria, I'm going to start raiding their pantries for some snacks for us."

"Um, ok," Vivi said. He seemed to like the idea.

We continued walking into the city when—

"Come hither, ya!" We turned and saw an elderly dwarf running at us.

Vivi's reflexes kicked in and he cowered behind me. "Aaa! I'm sorr—"

The dwarf woman stopped in front of us and began yelling. "An' just where do ya think ye're goin'! Ye're always loiterin' aroon'!"

I was annoyed. "Hey, what are—"

"Wheesht!" an elderly voice came from behind. "Would ye stop hecklin' me fer once!" An old dwarf, presumably the woman's husband, was waving his wife off and acting dismissive, as if Vivi and I weren't even there. It was a small hallway, so it couldn't really be avoided, but there had to be a limit!

"Away wi' ye!"

Vivi spoke up. "Um, pardon me, but…"

"Where would ye be wi'oot me!" the woman continued.

"Y-Ye dinnae have tae get sae angry…"

"If ye didnae want tae hear ma complainin', ye'd get back tae work!"

"Al-Alright, woman, alright..."

The old dwarf slumped his shoulders and walked into a room along the side of the hallway. The woman scoffed and spoke to herself as he left.

"Lazy, no-good husband o' mine... Hm?" She turned her head as she finally noticed Vivi and myself standing only a few feet away. She leaned in, smiling at Vivi like he was a cute, newborn puppy. "Mercy me! Are nae ye a wee one. Runnin' errands here, are ye?"

Vivi glanced at me, even more confused than I was, before speaking to her. "Um, excuse me, but…"

"Well, give ma regards tae the others!" The elderly woman waved goodbye as she walked into the same room as her husband.

I shook my head, still a little weirded out. Even knowing about the game didn't prepare me for the weirder scenes like this.

"Well, that was odd," I said.

"Isn't it amazing?" Vivi said happily. He was practically hopping out of joy.

"Hm? What's amazing?"

"The people here aren't afraid of me!"

There was little wonder why Vivi was so happy. After learning that he was manufactured for war, then after the discrimination he had put up with in Cleyra and the destruction of Lindblum, he had finally found a place where people didn't judge him for being a Black Mage.

Visiting this place had now become a _very_ good idea.

XXXXXXXX

The computer room was dim, lit only in one corner by a single light. The screens flickered with readings and measurements, some beeping occasionally, but most staying the same. One screen in particular had measurements for health, energy and soul link and had markers for, "Unit 00" and "Unit 01". The screen was labeled, "Project: Soulforge."

Hart Innural was working on one computer in the lit corner, furiously typing out a formula. He was so focused that he didn't notice when Saiko entered.

"Hart?" Saiko called out. "What are you doing? Why aren't you monitoring the project?"

Hart barely gave his "partner" a glance. "Soulforge was _your_ pet project. I only went along because I got to test my new methods."

"And you were worried about wasting material. I know. We've been over this before."

"If you don't mind, I _am_ rather busy, so get on with whatever you were going to say."

Innural was in a particularly foul mood today. Saiko decided not to waste time chatting.

"I wanted an update on Unit 00's vitals."

"He's fine," Innural said. "Whatever was depressing him for the last week seems to have lifted. His energy has grown as well. Whatever sparked his sadness, it was good for him. He's become twice as powerful."

"And Kaiten?"

"He's been inactive, but the soul link between him and his host has grown stronger." Innural furiously scribbled some notes down, but anger got the best of him and he threw paper into the air like confetti. He slammed his fist against the computer console. "You god damned theory worked. Is that what you wanted me to say?"

"Yes. That is all."

"To hell with you! Get out of my laboratory!"

Saiko turned without a word. The former leader of Olesta didn't enjoy working with an enemy, but it was a necessity for all of Terra. Although Innural was once called "The madman of Brumia", he had several good ideas. His theories on soul manipulation were second-to-none. Saiko exited, wishing that this plan would restore his planet, and ultimately, his race.

Innural let out a disgusted huff as the old man left.

_You fool,_ he thought. _You have no idea what this project has opened for me._

XXXXXXXX

A few more minutes of walking had resulted in us finding nothing. No food, no cafeteria, no market. Nothing. The city was more complicated than I thought.

"Where is it?" Vivi asked. "This place is confusing me."

"Uh… have we tried this way?" I asked, pointing down another hallway.

"Wasn't that the one with the boy and the dog?"

"Maybe. Where was the central plaza again?" I was getting sick of these cities being more complicated in real life than they were in the game.

We took the next hallway we found, walking a short distance until we found an open roof in a wide room. There was a raised guardrail made of stone and a bridge over a hole in the floor. Hanging over the hole was a small ship that was lavished in decorations and expensive design. The light shined down onto it, giving it an almost holy presence.

There was a platform on the far side of the hole, looking over the boat. This was the most sacred spot in the entire city, where couples were married and sent off to sanctuary. It was odd, since the dwarves never struck me as particularly religious in the game, but seeing this was almost like being in a church.

"Alright, I think I know where we are," I said. "Let's try this way."

We didn't make it far though. Two dwarves were standing on the bridge we had to cross. Once they saw Vivi, they gave us a friendly wave and walked over.

"Looks like we're popular," I joked, speaking so that the dwarves couldn't hear me.

"Y-yeah," Vivi agreed.

"Mister Pyntie-Hat!" one of the dwarves called out. "Thank ye agin. That hen ye cooked fer me was awful good, it was! What way did ye cook it? Did ye frizzle it wi' some o' yer mejick?"

The other dwarf nodded. "Aye. The berries ye traded me were astoondin' too! But likesay, what's a wee lad like ye doin' here the day?"

"Ah, we're jus' travelers," I said, picking up my accent again. "The wee one here wanted to see the world, is all."

"Aye, travelin'. Very important," the dwarf nodded. "Ye enjoy yerselves while ye're here."

The dwarves both gave another friendly smile before walking off.

"Not that it's unfriendly, but this is getting a little weird," I said. "If this keeps up, you're going to have your own fan club."

"You think so?" Vivi asked hopefully.

"Wouldn't surprise me."

We turned, walking to the kitchen once again, until we heard a scream from up ahead.

"Did you hear that?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah," I said. "It sounded like—"

Quina came bolting up the stairs ahead as fast as his large frame would allow, hobbling awkwardly. He had a distressed look on his face as he cried, "I not thief! I not thief!"

He breezed by Vivi and me, nearly knocking me off of the bridge. I called out for him to watch where he was going, but he didn't even seem to register that I was there.

"Quina! Watch it!" I yelled, but to no avail. The big Qu just kept running towards the front entrance.

"Man he's weird," I said as soon as I recovered.

"I wonder what freaked him out like that," Vivi said.

"I dunno," I said, though I had a very strong guess, remembering the game. He had asked why one needed money to buy food, never having to before since he lived alone with his master in a swamp. The shopkeeper, being overprotective because of a rash of recent thefts, accused him of being a thief, which sent Quina running away like a bawling child.

Which meant, the market was just beyond the next wall!

"I think we're close to some food though," I said. "I should be around here somewhere."

"That's good," Vivi said. "I'm getting really hungry."

"What do you feel like having?" I asked. "I could go for some kind of salad, or maybe some bread. Oh! Pancakes! We've got to find pancakes!"

"You think that they really have those?"

"One way to find out. Why? You like them?"

"Yeah. Grandpa Quan used to make them every morning. He said they were good for growing. I haven't had any since…"

Vivi gave a sad smile. I patted his hat, smooshing it gently. "Alright! We'll get us both some pancakes! And instead of syrup, we'll cover them with ice cream!"

I remembered doing that every weekend at college. I would reward myself by making a giant pancake in the pantry down the hall and I'd put two scoops of chocolate ice cream on it. 'Another pancake, another week I didn't go insane and set fire to the science building,' I would tell myself.

"That sounds like fun," Vivi said, laughing again. "I've never had ice cream before."

I blinked for a moment, then shook my head. "Okay. Seriously. When we get back to Alexandria, you're going to get a week's worth of junk food. No excuses!"

"Are you sure that's healthy?"

"Screw healthy. You're a kid. Have fun."

We made our way across the bridge, walking down a set of stairs and walking around a corner. Dust hanged in the air, illuminated by the light shining in from the few windows carved out in the walls. Some dwarves were hanging around the doorway to the market. Most were talking, some were walking away, apparently happy with their fresh food.

Vivi and I were busy talking about how much he was missing out in the world of sugary goodness.

"Cupcakes?"

"No." Vivi shook his head.

"Muffins?"

"No."

"Cake?"

"No."

"Celery with peanut butter on the end?"

"What?"

"Nothing." Judging by Vivi's responses, I had come to the conclusion that once Quan dropped his 'living without food' philosophy, he had become a health-nut.

We pushed our way through the crowd, careful not to piss anyone off. The people here looked kinda like hippos, so I wanted to make sure not to get on their bad sides.

"'S'cuse me," I said. "Coming through."

Most of the dwarves didn't pay much attention to us. Fortunately, things were much calmer inside. The room wasn't too big, but that didn't matter much. There were few dwarves, and there were several cases of food stacked throughout the room. There were all sorts of things ready to buy. Fresh fruit and vegetables. What looked like a roast pig was sitting behind a glass display case. Bagels hanging from hooks on the wall! After a week of nothing but sandwiches, I was finally surrounded by real food!

"H-Hey!" Vivi shouted. I looked at him and saw him pointing while shaking like a leaf.

"What is it?" I asked. I followed his arm to where he was pointing and stared wide-eyed.

In my excitement to finally find food again, I had completely glossed over the Black Mage standing in the middle of the room. He stared at us and we looked right back. My instincts almost kicked in to attack him. I had to take down so many in Cleyra that I had gotten used to them being inhuman monsters. Damn my reflexes.

Instead, the Black Mage took a step back, then another. There was a stillness in the air before he turned around and ran off as quickly as he could.

"The humans have found us!" he was screaming.

"Wait! Don't run!" I said, trying to calm him. It didn't work. The Black Mage took the second doorway out of the room at the back and was soon out of sight.

"Come back!" Vivi said. He took off, ducking through the few dwarves in his way. I tried to follow, but bystanders caught me. Vivi followed the Black Mage and made it out of the room much sooner than I could.

"Out of my way!" I said. "I need to get through!"

"Why?" a dwarf asked. "Why is a Pyntie-Hat afraid of ye?"

"It's a misunderstanding. I just need to talk to him!"

The stubborn dwarves still didn't move. _Screw this_, I decided, and backed away, heading out the way I came. It took longer, but with the sea of angry dwarves in the way, I didn't have much of a choice.

I ran through the hallways as quickly as I could. Up the stairs, across the bridge, around the corners and down the hallway leading to the entrance. I was worried as I ran that I wouldn't be able to get there in time. I could only hope Vivi hadn't gotten too far in his pursuit.

The dwarf guards at the entrance were peering around the corner, looking outside after the fleeing Black Mage. Fortunately for me, Quina was standing just outside the front doorway, leaning against the wall. Just as good, Vivi had only run as far the bottom of the vine supporting the city.

"Vivi!" I shouted. "You alright?"

He turned back slowly, adjusting his hat as he walked back up the doorway. "He ran away," he said sadly.

Quina stood up and joined us. "You know that guy?" he asked. "He friend of yours?"

"No, he's…" Vivi began. He trailed off, still amazed at the circumstances. "He's like me. He talks, and he even has emotion. He was scared!"

"Well, we have to just find him then, don't we?" I said.

"But what's he doing here? It isn't Brahne, is it?"

I shook my head. "There's no way she could mobilize her entire army that quickly. Alexandria doesn't have that much of a navy, and I doubt they would send their entire force through the underground cavern we took. Lindblum's navy could make the trip though, but the logistics behind that would take more than a week to prepare. The supplies alone, loading up the ships for an intercontinental trip, getting the soldiers in place while keeping control of the conquered city… There's just too much for them to do."

"Then who is he?" Vivi asked impatiently. "What's he doing here?"

"We'll just need to find him."

Quina seemed to like the idea. "The people here say he make good food! Maybe he give us some!"

"That'd be nice," I said. "We still haven't gotten anything for lunch."

One of the guards overheard our conversation and came over to us. "Do ye ken the Pyntie-Hats?" he asked.

"The… what?" I asked, not entirely sure what he said.

"Did you say 'Pointy-Hats'?" Vivi asked.

"Nay, Ah said Pyntie-Hats!" the guard corrected. "They often come from the Soothern Forest tae trade wi' us."

Vivi was astonished. "They? You mean there's lots of them? And they live near here?"

"Aye! But ye gots tae go all the way aroon' yon cliff live sae deep in the forest, that even owls dinnae live there!"

_Yes, because everyone knows that owls hate deep, wooded areas._

Vivi was glad to have the hint. "Trevor, I want to go to the forest and find them."

"Yes, yes!" Quina agreed. "They have good food to try!"

"Alright then," I decided. "If we move quickly, we can probably be there by the evening. Let's get going."

I started walking down the vine towards the forest, but stopped suddenly when my stomach started rumbling. I had to squeeze it to quiet it, but I couldn't deny that I was getting really hungry.

"Maybe we should grab some snacks before we leave."

XXXXXXXX

There! Another chapter done. I was originally going to stop the chapter somewhere in the middle of the Black Mage Village, but Conde Petie evolved more than I thought it would. And I thought that the end was a decent ending. Plus, I'd get to update sooner rather than later. Updating once a month is slow enough, thank you. :P

Oh, and between Quina and the dwarves talking, my spell checker hates me now, so if you see a typo, it's totally not my fault.

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:P


	18. Vivi's People

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's note: This was a fun chapter to write. I've always liked the Black Mage Village, so writing came easily. Plus, I threw in a few goodies to keep everyone hooked.

Chapter 17: Vivi's People.

XXXXXXXX

It had been a week and a half since their harrowing escape from death. It had been just as long since they were separated from their friends. They had been stuck traversing a dark tunnel for the better part of a week. They were even attacked by an assassin in the middle of the tunnel. They only got away because a gargant ran passed them at the right time and they jumped on.

Now, Zidane and Dagger were just glad to see sunlight as they exited Fossil Roo.

"Finally," Zidane said. "I was going crazy in there!"

Dagger walked out and pulled her hair behind her. "It's just like when we got out of the Ice Cavern. The sunlight feels great!"

"Yeah, but where do we go now? There's nothing but cliffs all around us!"

"We have the world map from my uncle, remember?" Dagger pulled out a ragged piece of cloth. It unfolded to a faded image of the four continents of Gaia. Regent Cid had given them the valuable treasure in hopes that it would help lead them to Trevor, Vivi, and ultimately, Kuja.

Zidane and Dagger learned that they had missed Trevor and Vivi by only two days. They traveled as quickly as the could, but the difficult terrain in Fossil Roo, as well as spending half a day running from Lani, had held them up more than they wanted.

Dagger kneeled and laid the map carefully in her lap. "There's an ocean over there," she said, pointing to the crashing waved in the distance. "And we're surrounded by cliffs… so we must be… here!"

Dagger pointed to the southern cliffs along the ocean of the Outer Continent.

"Are you sure?" Zidane asked. "Maybe we're here." He pointed to the northern coast.

"No, it looks like that's a beach. The part of the ocean we're next to borders steep cliffs."

Zidane sighed. "Alright. Then which way do we go?"

"I'm not sure. I think we have to follow the cliffs though. There's a path through it here, see?"

"But where do we go from there? Trevor and Vivi could be anywhere, and we don't even know where to begin looking for Kuja!"

"We'll just have to keep moving and find something. We're out of food and we don't know anything about this place."

Zidane sighed and paced along the ground. They didn't have a lot of options, and they weren't headed in any particular direction out here.

"I wish Trevor was here," Dagger said sadly.

"What?"

"He always seems to know what to do. Every time there's trouble, he does exactly what he has to, to get us out of it."

Zidane rested his head in his hand. "You know, he did come up with the plan for defending Cleyra. And he was the one who found out that you were in trouble just before we rescued you."

"Yeah. So maybe, if he was here, he would know where to go!"

Zidane laughed. "Maybe he knows where Kuja is and how to get to him."

Dagger shared a giggle. "Or he would know what enemies we were going to fight along the way."

Zidane slowed his laughing. "Yeah, I just hope he's alright."

There was a moment of silence. Zidane and Dagger hoped the best for their friends, but they both knew there was no proof that Trevor and Vivi had even reached the new continent. Or that they were still alive.

"C'mon," Zidane said. "We need to get moving."

Zidane started dragging his feet along the ground, when suddenly—

"Zidane, stop!"

The blonde thief paused in mid-step. Dagger carefully folded up the map she was still holding and walked over to an odd-looking spot on the ground.

"Look at this!"

On the ground, beneath Zidane's feet, were several scratches made deep in the ground. Some of it seemed to be missing, scrubbed out by time and Zidane's footsteps, but they spelled out a message…

Z + D

Me t u at Cond Petie

T +

"Is this from Trevor?" Dagger asked.

"It looks like it is. I can't believe he planned this."

"And there's an arrow leading somewhere!" Dagger said excitedly. "He wants us to follow it!"

"It's our only lead," Zidane said. "We might as well."

"I just hope we're not too far behind them."

XXXXXXXX

The half a day trek from Conde Petie paid off. A quick lunch in the city had given us to energy to travel. The horizon showed splashes of different hues as the sun faded in the late afternoon sky. We had reached the bottom of the canyon, like the dwarf had told us about. In the distance, I could see a huge forest. The trees were a light grey and most of the plants looked dead. We could already tell that there wasn't much life in the entire place.

"That it?" Quina asked.

"I think so," I said. "The guy said it was at the bottom of the cliff. That's the cliff over there."

"Hurry!" Vivi said impatiently. "We might lose him!"

He started to run off.

"Hang on!" I said, stopping him. "Let's stay together. These woods might be hard to navigate."

I had some experience exploring woods. I used to walk around in the forest behind my house when I was bored. There was a wrecked car rotting beneath a few trees, so it became something of a hideout for me. I'd spend hours there when I had to get away from my father for something, usually for a fight I had been in at school.

"Let's just go carefully," I said. "We'll catch up when we do."

"But what if we can't see him?" Vivi asked. "How will we know where to go?"

"The dwarf said that the Black Mage lived so deep that there weren't any owls. We can start with that."

"Owl sounds yummy!" Quina said. "I cook for us if I see it!"

"That's… great Quina."

There was a very small path leading into the woods. It was thin enough for a person, but barely. Bushes and branches reached out to scratch at us as we walked passed them. I just ignored them, trying to make sure I didn't run into any cobwebs.

The path didn't open up for a while. It took us several minutes until we reached a small clearing. Here, the earth had been raised and packed down, giving us a wide, easily navigable track.

"This is a good sign," I said. "It looks like this place was cleared to make it easier to cross. We're on the right track."

"Good," Vivi said. "I can't take much more of this."

He was struggling to free his hat from a bush that had snagged it. I helped him get it out, trying not to tear it too badly.

"Man, this thing's really stuck," I said.

"Let me help!" Quina insisted. Before I could refuse, he reached over and yanked hard on the hat. There was a loud ripping sound as it came free. Vivi fell back, clutching it.

"Oh no!" Vivi said. He looked at his hat. There was now a large hole in the top, almost tearing it into two pieces. Most of the top flap now laid on its side, barely hanging on by a few threads.

"Oh, I sorry Vivi!" Quina said sadly. "I no mean to."

"Oh… it's alright," Vivi said. "It was old anyway. I… needed a new one…"

I tried not to notice as I saw Vivi hold back a tear. He played with it, trying to fix it as best he could. He looked completely different without it on. Very bald.

"Maybe we can get you a new one later, ok?" I offered. "Hats are easy to find."

"Alright," he said quietly, putting on his hat. I could still see the top of his head through the hole in the hat, but ignored it for Vivi's sake.

We walked in silence for a short while. The path widened after a minute, then split. The trees hung heavily over each new path. They were dark, almost like tunnels. Only a few spots of sunlight shone through.

"This not seem normal," Quina said.

"It's not," I told him. "There's a magic field here. We're right in the middle of it."

"Oh. That bad?"

"No, it's a defensive spell. It's just meant to misdirect."

"Then… how do we get out of it?" Vivi asked.

I looked up. There were owls watching us from the branches over the left path. There weren't any over the right path.

"This way," I said. "No owls this way. We can still catch the guy if we hurry."

We ran down the right pathway. I watched the owls stare at us until they were out of sight. I glanced down the path just in time to see another owl flying right for me. I ducked, missing it. I wasn't sure what it meant until we found the next fork in the road.

"Is this the same spot?" Vivi asked. "It looks exactly the same!"

"That's the nature of the magic field," I said. "It repeats the same image until we find our way out or go backwards."

There were more owls sitting on the branches over the right path this time, but now there seemed to be less of them. The owl flying at us must have been a sign that we were going the right way.

The left path was clear of owls. "This way."

Again, we ran down the path, and again, an owl flew at us. We kept running and saw another path, just like the previous two.

"Right path!" I called out.

We continued like this for several more minutes. We'd run to a fork in the road, chose a new path, and continue running down it. I was amazed that the spell on the forest could be so intricate. Everything around us, save for the owls in the branches, was identical.

After a while, we had finally reached a fork with only one owl looking over us from the left path.

"This is the last one!" I said. "Hurry!"

We ran down the last path, but unlike the others, this one curved to the right. And at the end of the curve, we saw it.

The Black Mage from Conde Petie.

He was out of breath and leaning against a tree for support. I skidded to a halt. I held my arms out to stop Vivi and Quina as well. We hid low by the side of the path behind a tall line of bushes. The Black mage turned to check for pursuers.

I put a finger to my lips to signal the others to stay quiet. We had gone too far to fail now. The village was probably just around the bend up ahead. I held my breath, not moving an inch. The slightest rustling of a leaf might set this guy off.

I heard the Black Mage sigh with relief. He was confident that he lost us. He grunted as he pushed himself off the tree he had been resting against and walked down the rest of the path.

I stood out from the bushes, careful not to make a sound, then followed. Vivi came out too, holding his hat in his hands to avoid it getting caught again. Quina fell and landed on his side, earning a sharp "Shh!" from Vivi.

"We're almost there," I whispered. "Stay low and quiet."

"But he's right there!" Vivi said, louder than I would have liked. "Why can't we just run up and talk to him?"

"He already had one magic field up. He might have another trap around here somewhere."

"Oh… I guess that's true."

"Let's keep moving. He's just walking, so take it slow."

Vivi nodded once, solemnly, and Quina nodded while jumping. Somehow, I didn't think he really understood. Adderall would have done him some good.

We crept along the forest path. After our long dash, it felt like we were barely moving at all. I had to fight the urge to bolt after the Black Mage and did my best to keep myself in check.

The path straightened after another corner. I looked around and saw our target approaching a deserted forest. So far, we had been walking through and old, grey, dying forest. The one up ahead was much worse. There were tall, dry trunks that rose high into the air. However, there wasn't any sign of a branch or a leaf, or anything else that made the tree look like it was once alive.

The Black Mage stood before the dead forest. If I didn't know about this part of the story, I would have been astonished.

The mage raised his hands in the air. It looked like he was casting a spell. We watched from the dying forest for a moment, but then saw something weird. The trees started to shimmer and shake like water. A ripple started right in front of the Black Mage, spreading out to encompass the whole side of the dead forest.

After a moment, the center of the ripple started to peel away. As it did, we saw behind the ripples. The forest was far from dead. It was lush and greener than any tree I had ever seen before. It was a beautiful place to live.

The barrier was dispelled, revealing the whole forest, but only for a moment. It started to close as soon as the Black Mage walked in.

"No, dammit!" I said. "Run guys. We have to make it in!"

I took off as quickly as I could. If we didn't make it into the green forest in time, we would be locked out and there would be no way to get in. We were lucky that it wasn't that much of a run though.

"Hey!" Vivi shouted. "Wait, please! I just want to talk to you!"

"Vivi!" I shouted back.

The Black Mage gave us one look, then his expression turned to horror. He abandoned the barrier and took off. The ripples continued to close and cloak the village.

I picked up a little speed and charged into the barrier. I made it in with plenty of time. Vivi and Quina were right behind me. Vivi made it in with a little stumble. Quina ran in so quickly that I thought he could have run right through one of the trees.

The barrier closed behind us, shimmering for a moment. Now, we were inside a magic bubble. I just hoped that the Black Mages didn't see our intrusion as hostile.

The huts and houses of the village came into view almost immediately. They looked like they were straw and wooden, the kinds of things you might see in an episode of Gilligan's Island. Wooden planks surrounded each of the buildings, raising pedestrians out of the dirt and mud, just like sidewalks.

To Vivi's surprise, the Black Mage we chased wasn't the only one here. Another four were standing in the path right in front of us. They looked just like the ones Brahne used against us so many times before. I saw the little mage's face light up.

However, it was obvious what the citizens of this small village thought of us when we came into view.

"H…H…HUMANS!" one cried out.

"HUMANS HAVE FOUND US!"

"Run away!"

The Black Mages scattered quickly, leaving Vivi, Quina and I alone.

"Warm reception," I joked. "Think they have a committee that plans this?"

Vivi wasn't listening. "Wait! Come back!" He went after them, deeper into the village.

"Vivi! Stay with us!" I called after him, but it was pointless. He was already out of sight.

"This is going well, huh Quina?" I asked. When I didn't get a response, I looked around, finding that I was alone. I just barely got a glimpse of the Qu running down a separate path from Vivi.

"I smell food!" he said quite happily.

"Dammit people!" I shouted. I shouldn't have been surprised. Vivi was overcome with finding mages like himself and Quina had the attention span of a pot-smoking chimp.

I paced around for a minute, trying to think of what to do.

"What did I do in the game?" I wondered. Then I remembered…

"Right. Climbed onto the rooftops and went through people's houses looking for loot and loose change."

"_If you talk to yourself like that, people will think you're crazy_."

"Oh, hey Kaiten," I said. "What's up?"

"_I'm interested in these mages. They're not quite like the ones we had on Terra_."

"You had Black Mages on Terra?" I asked. I didn't expect that.

"_Not quite like these. These are artificial mages. Dolls given powers. Ours were regular people infused with the same powers."_

"So… you're saying anyone could learn Black Magic?"

"_Anyone who could survive the treatment. Only about half the people drafted to become Black Mages lived. I suspect that's why Kuja opted to use dolls instead of loyal subjects and followers. Better production rate_."

"That makes sense. And because Kuja couldn't control them, the Black Mages here eventually woke up and made the village here."

"_Exactly. And I'm interested in seeing how well they were able to create civilization on their own. From your memories, I take it that they try to imitate life as they saw it by humans._"

"Yeah, they do," I said. This was interesting stuff to hear. Terra sounded like a better place than I thought it was.

"_It reminds me of one of my troops_," Kaiten continued. "_Remus Tilfan. He was considered a genius since he was one of the only people who would wield both Black and Purple Magic. It gave him amazing powers._"

"So… what, he could make purple fireballs?"

"_No, he could control them. Perfectly_."

"Isn't that exactly what Vivi does already?"

"_The kid just launches attacks. Remus could _direct_ them._"

I was taken aback for a moment. It was an impressive feat.

"_It gave him a huge advantage when fighting anyone. There was no defense from it. If the fireball coming at you didn't kill you, the thunder coming from behind would. He was one of my strongest fighters._"

Kaiten was silent for a moment.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"_Yeah, fine. Just remembering Ckelen-te-Clu._"

I didn't say anything. Kaiten hadn't told me much about that incident when he lost his entire team, so I figured the best thing to do was to leave it alone.

"_Any idea what you're going to do now?_"

"Dunno," I said. My mind wandered while my hand settled on my hips. I felt my short swords tap against my palm. "Wait a minute… There's a synthesis shop here. I can get my swords replaced."

"_Not a bad idea. Replacements can be a good thing._"

"No offense to Wayne for his work, but these guys have magic. That might help."

I started walking down one of the sidewalks surrounding a large building. I looked into the window as I passed it. There were two bunk beds set up inside, as well as a small circular rug in the middle of the room. My guess was that this was the inn. They probably traded with the dwarves for the beds and the rug. They could really use some paintings or a desk though. The room was really under furnished.

As I rounded the building, I saw a sign hanging over the door to the inn. There was a picture of a moon with the words "Slumber Inn" written over it. So now there was something to be said about the decoration and the creativity of this place. And yet it was still better than anything I had ever seen in a Hilton hotel.

Down the sidewalk a little ways was another sign on another building. This one was of a sparkling cat with the words "Black Cat Synthesis Shop."

"Perfect," I said. The door was hanging open, so I walked in.

"Hello?" I said. A pair of Black Mages saw me and froze.

"Uh… This is a synth shop, isn't it?" I asked.

Silence.

"Synthesis, you know? Sword work and such?"

More silence.

"Look, I know it's weird seeing a human out here, but I'm just trying to do business."

That seemed to get through to them. "Business?" one of the Black Mages said. "Uh… right." He turned to his partner. "We ask what we can do for him, right?"

Apparently, their business plan was based off of momentary observation and weak speculation. I didn't care though. Not as long as I got some nice new weapons.

"Yeah, I think so," came the reply. "But… he's a human. What if he tries to capture us?"

"But he's a customer too!"

It was like they didn't even think I was here. "Relax, I only want freedom for the Black Mages," I said calmly. "And I will personally kick Brahne's face in if she gets near you guys."

My words, combined with their youthful mentalities, seemed to help gain their trust a little. They nodded and seemed alright with my proposal.

I pulled out my short swords and held them by the middle, acting as non-threatening as I could. "Could you modify these? I need them strengthened and given a new edge."

The Black Mages glanced at each other again. "Yes, I think we can do that."

"Thanks." For added comfort, I also said, "I'm going to need them if my group is going to hunt down Kuja."

This earned me two looks of surprise. "Kuja? You're fighting Kuja?"

"Yeah. He's the bastard who tried to use the Black Mages as weapons. My friends and I are looking for him so we can stop him from doing it again."

The Black Mages nodded at each other. "Alright. We'll start working on these as fast as we can. Check back with us tomorrow."

"Excellent, thanks," I said.

I turned and walked outside. I realized that I probably should have been more specific as to what I wanted, but I wasn't sure what else to tell them. The game just gave you a list of items that could be forged. Since I didn't see any such lists, I could just give a simple request and hope they did something cool, like infuse it with magic.

I only made it a few steps down the sidewalk before I was nearly run over by a Black Mage. I was knocked over onto my back and had the wind knocked out of me for a moment.

"Hey, watch it!" I called back. It wasn't until I saw him for the second time that I realized that the Black Mage was actually Vivi. He had come charging in from the dirt path leading from the side. I pushed myself up and dusted myself off.

It only took a glance down the dirt path to know what had happened. Vivi must have talked to Mr. 288, the Black Mage elder of the village and learned about death. It must have been hard for the little mage. He had been surrounded by wars and death his whole life, but he still didn't understand mortality. The worst part was that I wasn't the right person to talk to him about it, so I couldn't help him understand.

But I could try to move things in the right direction.

Before trying to find Vivi, I had to find Mr. 288. I was amazed that I could still remember his name. The Black Mages all gave themselves numbers instead of names. My guess was because they didn't understand the concept of identity, but I stopped myself before going into a full philosophical tirade.

Mr. 288 was still standing by the graveyard. The graveyard was little more than a small green hill with some overturned dirt where the bodies had been buried. Instead of gravestones, they had carved sticks identifying the bodies. There were a few flowers decorating the site. There were only a few Black Mages buried here.

"Excuse me," I called out as I neared him. Mr. 288 was a Type C Black Mage, the strongest type. He stood tall with his staff, but otherwise looked no different than any other Black Mage.

"My name is Trevor." I offered a hand to shake with him. "I think you were just talking with my friend Vivi."

"The little one?" he asked. "Yes, I was speaking with him. It seems you've been taking good care of him."

"I do what I can," I said. "It wasn't easy with Brahne's war. I think he might've been a little messed up fighting so many Black Mages."

"He is young and scared. Death is a frightening thing."

"True."

"I spend much of my time here in this cemetery, looking over the bodies of our comrades."

"Were they hurt during your exodus to this continent?"

Mr. 288 was silent. I knew they had simply died due to age. I picked up a flower that I saw lying lopsided on the ground. I kneeled down to adjust it, lining it against a small stick with the name "Mr. 213" carved in it.

"You're respectful of our friends," Mr. 288 said. "I thank you."

"No problem," I said. "I think it might be because I lost my mother when I was a kid."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Was she in a war?"

"No…" I said slowly. "It was a car ac—I mean, an airship crash. Someone drove into her side and she didn't make it out."

There was a long silence. I took a moment to recall my mother. It took me a long time to recover from the car accident she was in. My father did everything he could to console me, but we lived far out in the suburbs while he worked in the city. He had to leave me alone for most of the day while he earned a living for both of us. He wasn't there for me as much as I needed him. In a way, I grew up without any parents.

I remembered a lot of anger because of it.

I winced thinking about it. "So, how did you find this place?" I had to ask. "I mean, this village is incredible. Didn't it take a while to build?"

"We had help from the dwarves," Mr. 288 said calmly. "As for arriving here… We simply became aware of ourselves and ran from the fighting as quickly as we could."

"Became aware?"

"Do you remember being born?"

"No."

"It was the same with me. I just woke up one day… and there was a human body lying next to me." Mr. 288's voice became slower and quieter. "His body was covered in blood. It scared me… I didn't know what it meant. I ran as fast as I could. When I looked around, I was far away from the front line. There were many others like me, and we decided to escape together. We heard about this village after roaming around for a while. That's how I ended up here."

"I see," I said soberly.

"Many of our friends stopped moving recently. The ones that were produced earlier stopped first… Maybe our life span is limited."

"All life is limited."

"But it's different for us. We were made! We don't know when our time is supposed to be up."

I looked away for a moment. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I know you didn't mean to offend."

"Don't worry about it." I turned back. "Actually, I wanted to ask if you could talk to Vivi later. I think it would do him a lot of good."

"If it's about our lifespan, I'm afraid I'll have to decline. Even I don't know that much."

"No, I meant about things in general. Vivi's never been around anyone like himself. The closest he's ever had to a home was a hole in a cave in the wild. He could use some people to talk to."

Mr. 288 let out a long sigh. I almost asked him the question again after he didn't answer for a while.

"Very well," he agreed. "I'll talk to him."

"Thanks," I smiled. "I know he'll appreciate it."

There was a small pause until another Black Mage came to the cemetery. "Oh, hello," he greeted Mr. 288 with a smile. He recoiled when he saw me.

"Don't worry," Mr. 288 defended. "This human isn't like the others. He is kind and respectful."

"Oh, that's good," the new Black Mage said. Apparently, Mr. 288 had a lot more push around here than I thought. "Did you come to visit our friends too?"

"Friends?" I asked. Mr. 288 gave me a slight nod. "Uh, yeah. I just came to talk."

"It's nice to see them, isn't it? They must be lonely." The Black Mage walked to one grave and sat down in front of it. "Do you think it's warm or cold down there? In the ground?"

I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't used to being put on the spot, but I really wasn't used to the situation being as sensitive as this.

"Who's your friend?" was the only thing I could think to say.

"Mr. 36," the Black Mage said happily. "We escaped together. We had so many things to learn. It was really scary at first, but we helped each other. Then one day, Mr. 36 stopped moving. He just stopped… Wouldn't move or say anything. My friend who knows lots of things told me this was what 'death' was, and we had to bury him. Mr. 36 is buried under the ground now. But I don't understand why. He's going to come out again one day, right? When he does, I'm going to wash him off in the pond."

Mr. 288 and I shared a sad glance as neither of us responded.

XXXXXXXX

I walked silently away from the graveyard. Mr. 288 had promised to inform the rest of the village that I wasn't a threat. I still got a few looks of fear or anger as I traveled the town though. I just tried to ignore them as I headed towards the inn. I just wanted to get some food and a bed to rest in.

The inn wasn't far from the cemetery. I opened the door to a lobby smaller than my living room back home on Earth. There were three Black Mages inside, two chatting with each other on the far side of the room and one behind the unadorned counter. All gave me the same accusing glare as I walked in. For a moment, I wondered if this was what Vivi felt when he walked around in Cleyra.

"Uh, hi," I said, trying to diffuse the situation. "I'd like a room for the night?"

More silence.

"And do you know where I could get something to eat?"

"He's alright," came a young voice. Vivi came from inside the next room. "He's my friend."

"But he's a human! He'll just try to enslave us and make us fight!"

"No he won't!" Vivi said. Then, almost out of character, he pulled out his staff and aimed it at the innkeeper. "Don't threaten him!"

The innkeeper stared at the tip of the staff for a few moments. "Fine," he said. "He can stay here for the night."

"And I have another friend who will need a bed," Vivi said.

"Is he a human too?"

"No, he's a…" Vivi paused as he tried to remember what species Quina was. After a moment, he said, "He's Quina."

It was too bad. Vivi had a nice dramatic streak going.

"Fine," the innkeeper said. "We don't have anyone else staying here anyway."

Vivi turned to me and smiled. I gave him a thumbs-up.

"Pretty extreme of you," I said as we walked into the next room. "Were you going to set him on fire or something?"

"You did the same for me," he explained. "Remember in Cleyra when you blew up that counter when those people cornered me in the store?"

"Ah, right." I took a seat, finding some humor in how the situation had turned around so completely.

"Are you doing alright?" I asked. "Earlier, you seemed pretty freaked out."

"No, I'm fine," he said. He shied away and wouldn't face me. "It's just…" He took a long breath. "Seeing all these Black Mages here, moving and talking like me… It's like I'm normal again."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You've always been normal."

"No, I was normal when it was just me. Then we found the dolls in Dali, and on the cargo ship, then they were fighting in Burmecia… I was alone. They all looked like me, but none of them were anything like me. Now that there are others like me, I don't know what to do. Or how to feel."

"It's not easy," I admitted. "I'd probably be numb for a while."

"Yeah," Vivi said. I wondered how well he was listening.

"The best thing you can do is think as rationally as you can. After that, just don't regret your decision and you'll be fine."

Vivi looked up. "You think it's that easy?"

"The world can be a really simple place if you let it be. Like Quina would say, there are only two things in this world: things you can eat, and things you can't."

"Hmm… Maybe."

I sat down on the edge of one of the bunk beds. "Just don't worry about things too much and you'll be fine. Alright?"

"Alright," Vivi said somberly.

I noticed a tray of food next to me on the bed. There was plenty for all three of us, once Quina got back. Vivi must have ordered it already. There was some kind of meat in the center of it. It tasted like chicken.

"This is good," I said. "You want any?"

"No, I think I need to do something," Vivi said. "I'll be back later."

He ran out the door before I could stop him. I hoped he was on his way to talk to Mr. 288. It was getting dark outside. The sun was already set over the horizon. The village was darkening and there wasn't much light left.

Still, I knew Vivi would be fine. I was more worried about—

"Ah! This place not have food!" I heard Quina complain as he walked in. He stood in the doorway and sniffed the air for a moment. "Trevor? You find food?"

"Right here," I said, revealing the tray. Quina jumped excitedly and charge the food, nearly knocking it out of my hands. "Mmf! Soo good!" he said between bites.

"You think you could keep most of that in your mouth?" I asked, dodging another chunk of fruit.

Quina took one more large bite and swallowed everything. When he was done, there was barely anything left for me.

"Gee, thanks."

Quina burped. "Yummy! I full now."

"That's nice." I had nothing against Quina, but so far, he could be a little grating. I silently hoped that Kaiten didn't try to lash out at him or anything. Otherwise, we'd be out our blue mage.

"Aya!" Quina said suddenly. "I call top bunk!"

"The HELL you do!"

XXXXXXXX

This was a fun chapter to write. Lots of nice character-building moments. Let me know what you guys think and I'll do what I can to improve and get the next chapter out on time. It'll be a big one though since it's the 3-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF SHATTERED MIND! XD Yes, it's almost been 3 years since I started this story. It barely feels like it though, so the next chapter will have a party, a wedding, and if I have time, another ATE!

And now, I'm off to finish the ice cream that I've been saving for finishing this chapter early. XD


	19. A New Comrade

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: HAPPY 3 YEARS SHATTERED MIND! XD There's cake and punch in the back, so help yourself. We also hired a clown for entertainment. Not to make balloon animals or anything, he's our "piñata". Sticks are also in the back.

*Steps up on a big platform on one side of the room. Taps the microphone before the big speech.*

Just 3 years, 1 month and a few days ago, a young Krimson Rogue decided to find a better way to spend his time between classes in college, rather than just playing World of Warcraft and watching obscure anime. He had a few fanfictions under his belt, a hobby he picked up after his sophomore roommate in college got him into the habit of writing.

So, he decided to take on a new challenge. Something that to his knowledge, only 2 people had done before. Completing a FFIX SI story!

He needed to see if he could stomach it beforehand, so he wrote the first 5 chapters before he published anything. By doing that, he knew he could at least start the massive project and keep going without stopping before Trevor even reached Dali, as so many other SI stories unfortunately do. Still, it was an accomplishment that lasted as long as it has and will only continue for the remaining 2 books.

Trevor still has a lot of things he needs to go through and find out before he can go back home.

Now sit back and enjoy the extra-long 3-year anniversary chapter special! Complete with awkward wedding scene! Who will it be between? Will I screw around like usual, or will there be an actual hint of romance between Zidane and Dagger?

Chapter 18- A New Comrade.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning came unpleasantly.

Another flaw of the Black Mages' inn that I had discovered was that the top bunk was angled perfectly next to the window. When I woke up, I opened my eyes slowly, only to be blasted in the face with a sunbeam. The quick jolt of pain caused me to jump back unexpectedly and fall all the way from the top bunk to the hard ground.

I lay gasping since all the wind had been knocked out of my lungs.

Quina stirred from his bed beneath mine. "Trevor? Why you sleeping on the ground?"

I groaned. "This is a nice start to the day."

I got up slowly, rubbing my head and waiting for the inevitable headache.

I looked around. Quina and I were alone in the room. My guess was that Vivi had left earlier to explore the village some more. That, or he had never even come back.

"We need to head out soon," I said. "No sense in staying here longer than we have to."

"Already?" Quina asked. "We just got here! I not try enough yummy-yummies yet."

For a moment, I wondered if there was such a thing as 'enough' for Quina.

"We don't want to stay here too long and get in the way of the villagers," I said. "Besides, Kuja's still out there."

"Ah," Quina nodded in understanding. "He the bad guy, yes?"

"….Yes," I said after a moment. I had only told him that about a dozen times since we had gotten here. Maybe traveling would have been easier if we had a short bus to use.

I cracked my neck as I walked outside, into the light. The sun was already well into the sky. I covered hand over my eyebrows to block the extra light. There were only a few Black Mages walking about. They didn't seem to mind me as much now as they did yesterday. They only gave me fleeting glances, then kept on moving. I didn't mind though. At least they weren't panicking like before.

_Oh yeah!_ I realized. _I dropped my swords off at the synth shop. Maybe they're done by now._

"I go look for food," Quina said, leaving the inn behind me. "Maybe something in forest."

"Alright," I said. "Just be back soon. We're leaving in a little bit."

He ran off eagerly. I just shook my head. Quina was insane, but maybe he would find something. It wouldn't be the first time he surprised me.

I walked down the sidewalk, trying to enjoy the day when the headache finally hit me. I groaned in pain and rubbed the back of my neck. I just prayed that I wouldn't last all day.

The Black Cat Synth Shop was dark as I entered. I didn't even see the Black Mages at first.

"Hello," one of them called out, startling me a little.

"Hey," I said back.

"You're here for your swords, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Are they ready?"

The Black Mage smiled. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this guy was acting odd.

"We're finishing the infusion now," he said. "We were up all night trying to finish it, but we think you're going to really like it."

I liked hearing that they were going all out to improve my short swords and make them stronger than I expected, but I had no idea exactly what that was. I was understandably impatient. "What did you do?"

"They're almost done," the Black Mage said. "Mr. 99 is in the back now. He has to fuse magic into the blades while they're doused in water to cool."

"Magic?" I asked, "What kind of magic?"

My immediate concern was whether or not this magic would interfere with my Chi or not.

My fears were answered when Mr. 99 came out of a door in the back. He smiled at me and held two short swords that I had never seen before.

"Here they are!" he said. "They're the best work I've ever done. Be careful, they're still a little warm."

I didn't bother asking how much work he had done to justify this as his best since I was too busy staring at my new swords. I took them carefully and looked them over. They were so different from before, and from each other, that I wondered if they were even the same blades.

One blade was now red. It had a cleaver shape, only one edge, and was thicker at the end than at the hilt. The tip was slicked back so that the tip was on one side of the sword, rather than right down the middle. Steam seemed to pour out of it, but that had to be from the forging just minutes ago. The other was symmetrical and light blue in color. There were three partial gut hooks on each side, points of the blade that stuck out like a sawblade. Anything caught on one of those would get crushed underneath it easily.

"These are my swords?" I asked, astonished. The only things that looked the same were the hilts.

"The core is," the first Black Mage said. "We reshaped the edges by compounding them with hi-carbon mythril. They have an edge that would cut a mountain in half. Uh, we don't recommend you actually try that."

"And the magic?" I asked, turning the blades over.

"This one is fire," Mr. 99 said, pointing to the red one. "And this one is water."

Another glance of the blades showed me that the red blade was still steaming, perhaps on its own. The blue blade also seemed wet and had a thin layer of water greasing it.

"We actually called in some favors from other Black Mages," Mr. 99 said. "It took six of us all night to complete these. But you couldn't find a stronger pair of swords anywhere!"

I laughed. "I knew you'd improve them, but I didn't think you'd do this much!"

The Black Mages dropped their smiles. They glanced hesitantly at each other, then looked back at me.

"Yesterday, you said that you were hunting Kuja, right?"

I lowered the swords at my sides and matched their gazes. "Yeah."

"Please use these to stop him. We don't want anyone else to go through what we did, to be used like mindless dolls to kill and destroy."

I looked back at both of them for a moment, then nodded soberly. "I'll shove both of these through his gut."

The Black Mages let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you. It means a lot to us that a human would do this for all of us."

_Did they think I wouldn't?_

"Yeah, no problem."

Mr. 99 pulled out a pair of leather straps. New sheaths. "You'll need these to wear your new swords."

I took them with a grin. "Thanks." They fit on my belt perfectly. The loops were big enough to let the wider blades through, but not so big that the crossguards could pass through. "I have to get my team together and find Kuja, but thanks. These will really help."

The Black Mages both nodded at me. "Good luck."

I chuckled as I came up with a name for both my swords as I left the building.

_Crimson and Azure. Not bad._

XXXXXXXX

The village became much more alive as more people woke up. It was like walking around some old part of town that didn't have any paved streets. I recalled a trip to Jamestown when I was a kid that was something like this. There was noise of people talking all around me, and somewhere deeper in the village, I could hear a pounding hammer. It was probably someone fixing another building.

I passed the inn and the graveyard. I didn't see Mr. 288 anywhere around. I wondered briefly if he and Vivi met last night, or if they talked. If they had, then Vivi would have found something to fight for, or somewhere to belong. Both would be good for him.

Curiously, I saw Vivi cheerfully chatting with a few Black Mages at the front of the village. He looked different. It took me a moment to notice it, but I saw the reason why he must have been so happy.

The Black Mages had given Vivi a new hat. Something like that probably felt like being accepted into a special club for him. It was shorter than his last hat and seemed to fit him better. It didn't flop over at the top like the last one. It was light orange and looked just like the hats that the other Black Mages were wearing.

"Trevor!" Vivi waved at me. He came dashing over to me. "Look! They gave me a new hat!"

"Very nice," I smiled.

"They said it will enhance my magic and make me stronger." Vivi glanced down and his eyes found my new weapons." "Hey, are those new swords?"

"Yeah," I said, glancing at them myself. "Infused with magic. They really know how to make things here, don't they?"

"Yeah, and come here!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the group of Black Mages that had been watching us. "This is Mr. 144," he said, pointing. I gave him a nod. Some of the Black Mages still seemed apprehensive to me being here, but at least they didn't run screaming.

"Can you tell him what you told me?" Vivi asked excitedly.

Mr. 144 nodded. "I think I saw someone that looked like Kuja in the western part of the continent, riding a silver dragon. It was when I went to deliver some food to the dwarven village. I had some ripe fruit to trade, and a freshly cooked owl. They seemed to like it, but I thought it was a little—"

"That's alright," I said, halting him. "Can you tell me more about Kuja?"

"Oh, yes, sorry. Well, I heard something about a secret on the continent. Something that he used to control the war on the Mist Continent."

I knew what he was talking about, but I acted intrigued anyway. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, absolutely."

I smiled. "Good. Now we know where to look. Thanks."

"Does that mean we have to go now?" Vivi asked disheartedly.

"Yeah," I said. "If we leave now, we might be able to get back to Conde Petie by lunch time."

"Yeah… alright."

"Don't worry, we can come back here to visit."

"Vivi!" one of the Black Mages called back. "You'll explore the world for us, won't you?"

"Yeah!" another one called out. "Tell us about it when you come back!"

"And stop Kuja!"

"Yeah!"

Vivi turned back and waved at everyone, smiling. "Alrighty!" he called back. "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

"What you say?"

I faced the forest just in time to see Quina running in carrying the remains of a cooked owl. I didn't know how he managed to cook an owl so quickly, so I threw it up to blue magic and him being an expert cook.

"You no can leave me here!" he protested. "I starve!"

"Somehow, I highly doubt that," I said, glancing at the owl. "Don't worry though. We were going to get you as we left."

"Good," Quina said, crossing his arms.

"Come on!" Vivi said. "We have to get to Conde Petie!"

"Right," I nodded, walking into the forest with the others right behind me. "Quina, pass the owl."

XXXXXXXX

It had been a long, desolate climb for Zidane and Dagger. They didn't get much sleep the previous night. The unfamiliar territory wasn't exactly inviting. At least it gave Zidane a chance to try to romance Dagger by telling her about the time he ran away from home, looking for the blue light.

Besides, they had to make it to the city Trevor had told them about in the message in the ground. Conde Petie, or whatever the hell it was called.

"Remind me to stay out of arid regions from now on," Dagger said. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"You're not giving up on me now, are you?" Zidane asked. He didn't know what Dagger was complaining about. Sure, it was hot out, but at least she wasn't carrying the backpack and all the gear.

"I'm just tired," she explained.

Zidane sighed. "Are you still upset that your mother sent that bounty hunter after you?"

"She did not!" Dagger protested. "That was a lie!"

"Sorry," Zidane said. He had to be careful if he was going to survive. The week alone together in the cavern hadn't exactly helped his relationship with Dagger. A romantic trip, it was not.

"No, I'm sorry," Dagger said. "I just… haven't had a chance to rest ever since we found out about the attack on Burmecia."

"What about when we found you unconscious under Alexandria Castle?"

"That was far from restful, trust me."

Zidane and Dagger walked on in silence. It wasn't long until they reached the top of the hill. There was a small dip in front of them, giving them a clear view of the city. The big stone box of a town rested on two enormous roots overhanging the canyon.

Zidane slanted his head, trying to make sense of the building. "What a weird shaped… village? What is that thing?"

"Maybe it's a temple of some kind?" Dagger suggested.

"Whatever it is, it's weird."

"It's the best lead we have. This must be where Trevor was telling us to go."

"Think he's inside?"

"I hope so. Maybe he found something out since he's been here."

Zidane flushed hearing Dagger say she hoped Trevor was around. Maybe he was a bit jealous, but with a girl as beautiful as Dagger, who wouldn't be?

"Zidane, stop stalling!" Dagger said. He shook his head and saw that the princess had started walking off without him while he was in thought. "Let's go!"

"Alright, alright," he said, trudging off again.

The city looked worse as they came closer. Loose rock and dirt matted the walls. The whole place looked like it could fall at any minute.

"This place looks stable," Zidane said. "Watch out for holes in the ground."

"I don't think it's that bad," Dagger said. "I almost feel like a diplomat. Maybe we can—"

"Rally-ho!"

"Gah!" Dagger shouted.

A pair of dwarven watchmen stood in the doorway, blocking Dagger and Zidane's way.

"More ootsiders?" one guard asked. "We've had a bunch o' ye lately."

"A… bunch of us?" Dagger translated.

"They must mean Trevor and Vivi!" Zidane said. "We found them!"

Zidane tried to run into the city to look for their lost friends, but the guards got in his way.

"What the hell?" he said. "Move! Our friends are in there."

"We cannae," the dwarf said. "Ye cannae enter withoot sayin' oor sacred greetin'."

Zidane and Dagger gave each other a quick glance.

"Rally-ho!" the dwarves both said again.

"Wr…wrallie-ho?" Dagger struggled to say.

"Rally-ho! Ye may enter!"

Zidane was hardly amused by the situation. "What the hell is this?"

Dagger shook her head and sighed. "Just do it Zidane."

Zidane ran a hand across his face before he spoke. "…Rally-ho."

"Rally-ho! Ye can pass."

Zidane sighed as he walked passed the guards. He rolled his eyes at Dagger once they were both through. Dagger had to stifle a giggle.

Inside, the pair was treated to a bevy of the strange-looking dwarves. The little green citizens were walking around, oblivious of the newcomers. Dagger was amazed about meeting the new society and wondered what kind of lifestyle they had. Zidane kept his guard up and his hands near his daggers. The dwarves were at the perfect height to pickpocket him.

"Will you relax?" Dagger asked. "Try to look a little courteous."

"Sorry if I don't trust everyone I see at first glance," he whispered back.

"But everything here seems so friendly and warm."

They rounded the corner and found the central altar. The boat hanging over the large hole in the floor was illuminated by the seemingly holy light coming in from the ceiling.

"See what I mean?" Dagger asked. "This looks very nice. This is warm."

"No, this is bad construction," Zidane said. "Someone could fall down there at any time."

Dagger sighed impatiently. "You're impossible. Can we at least find something to eat?"

"Fine," Zidane said. "Maybe they have a restaurant around here somewhere."

They headed off, deeper into the city. However, it was tangled and confusing. One turn lead to one hallway, which lead to another hallway that looked exactly the same. Then a staircase went to a corridor which lead to a room they didn't recognize.

"Zidane?" Dagger said. "I think we're lost."

"Maybe," he agreed. "Think we should ask for directions?"

"I would… but it's kind of hard to understand these people. They have such a weird accent."

"Yeah, but we should—oof!"

As soon as Zidane rounded the corner, he walked straight into someone he didn't see and fell backwards. As he looked up, he saw a man he didn't expect. A man with white hair.

Dagger recognized him at once. "You…"

XXXXXXXX

"There it is," I said as we marched. My headache was a little late, but the blaring sunlight, combined with the blow I had taken earlier, was finally starting to take its toll.

We had made some distance from the Black Mages in the short while. We had already left the forest, which was much faster than entering was. Conde Petie wasn't far away now.

"Are you alright Trevor?" Vivi asked.

"I'll be fine," I said, rubbing my neck. "Just a headache."

"It probably because you sleep on the floor," Quina said. "That not good for you."

"Thanks Quina, I said sarcastically. "I'll remember that."

We could see the giant pickle on top of the city in the distance. I would be glad for the shade. The heat outside wasn't doing any good for me. Vivi didn't seem to mind it at all though. His new hat gave him better shade than his last one. He played with it, adjusting it ever so slightly.

"Like it?" I asked.

"Huh?" he asked. I pointed to his hat. "Oh, yeah," he smiled. "It's really cool. I can feel some of the magic flowing through it to me."

"The magic flows into you from your gear?"

"Yeah. Like my staves. I hold on to it and draw power from it and can use it. That's why I get stronger attacks when I get stronger staves. I don't think I can do much without one. Maybe I can launch a few fireballs."

"Yeah, I do the same!" Quina said. "I eat monster, then I get power from fork!" He held his weaponized fork proudly.

"I guess that's the difference between your magic's and mine," I said. "I'm a mana battery. My Chi comes from me, not my gear."

"You mean you get your magic from within you?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah. It's not that weird, is it?"

"I guess not. I'm just trying to imagine it."

I laughed. Now I had another reason to consider myself unique.

"Can we hurry?" Quina asked. "I getting hungry."

"How can you be hungry?" I asked. "You just ate half an owl!"

Quina's stomach growled. He tried to quiet it by pressing his hands down on it, but it didn't do much to silence his massive gut.

I sighed. "Fine. We'll grab something in town."

I just hoped that keeping Quina with us didn't hurt my wallet too much.

It was about another hour before we reached the gates of Conde Petie. The guards recognized us at once and greeted us with a friendly wave and a cheer.

"Rally-ho!" one of the dwarves said. "Welcom' back! Did ye find the Pyntie-Hets?"

"Aye," I said in my bad Irish. "They were real nice. Let us stay the night."

"Glad tae hear it."

"Rally-ho," I said before walking passed the guards. Vivi and Quina did the same and followed me.

I returned to my normal voice when we were far enough away from the doorway. "Stick together this time," I said. "I don't want to run around trying to find you guys later."

"Ok," Quina nodded. "It better to eat with friends anyway."

"Now, we just need to find a restaurant or something," I said. "Any ideas guys?"

Vivi shook his head. "The only place I saw was the grocery store yesterday."

"I not see one," Quina added.

"Maybe they don't have one," I pondered. "Whatever. Let's just walk around until we find something."

I was still trying to get used to the town, so I didn't have a very good mental map of the area. Nevertheless, I picked a corridor and strode down it.

There were a few rooms along this hall. Most looked like private hovels, but one of the larger ones looked more like a hotel. There was a small fountain, probably pumping water up from the roots was my guess, and a few beds. I nodded to myself. At least we had a place to stay for the night.

As we passed more of the hallway, we saw more houses, but no restaurants. I was beginning to think that Conde Petie was broken into districts, like Lindblum was. If that was the case, then we were in the wrong part of town.

"I don't think this is working," I said. "Let's just grab something at the grocery store. I'll make us some sandwiches."

"Wait!" Quina said excitedly. "I smell something!"

Rather than make any number of crude jokes, I decided to go along with Quina. "Smell what? Food?"

"Food! This way! This way!"

Quina charged down the hallway. I called after him, but he completely ignored me. With an agitated sigh, Vivi and I chased after him.

"It this way!" Quina called, rounding a corner. I lost sight of him for a moment. I saw him again just standing in place just on the other side of the corner, blocking the hallway.

"Quina, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Aya!" he shouted. "Watch it! You very rude!"

"I know you!" came a woman's voice from the other side of him. "You were the chef at my birthday this year, weren't you?"

I didn't think next. Before I knew it, I had leapt around Quina's wide frame.

There, on the ground, was Zidane. Dagger was a few feet behind him.

"Guys!" I called out. I laughed, happy beyond belief.

"Trevor?" Zidane said. I gave him a hand up and nearly hugged him. "So you did want us to come here."

"What?" I asked. "Oh, you got my message?"

"Trevor!" Dagger cried out. She rushed me and gave me a brief hug. Our eyes met for a second and she blushed slightly before she pulled back and regained her composure. "I'm glad to see that you're alright. We were really worried about you. Where's Vivi?"

"I'm here!" the little mage said. He walked around Quina and smiled at our recovered friends.

"Nice hat," Zidane said. "Where'd you get it?"

"Black Mages! They were like the ones on the cargo ship, but they were moving and talking! Like me! Isn't that amazing? They were so cool!"

Vivi was chatting away like a 5-year old hopped up on a bag of sugar.

"And who's your new friend?" Zidane asked.

Quina was getting impatient. "Trevor, you know this rude guy?"

"He's a friend of ours Quina."

Quina nodded happily, promptly forgetting the whole "rude" business. "I get it! They have lunch with us!"

"That's not a bad idea," I said. "Quina, you said you smelled food around here. Is it close?"

"Yes, yes! Very close! Follow me."

XXXXXXXX

It turns out that there really was a restaurant in the city. We were just in the wrong part of town. It wasn't much of a place. The walls and floors looked dusty and there was only one table, but Quina said he could tell a good cook when he saw one and vouched for the people he had never met before working in the kitchen.

"…So, after we stayed the night, I picked up these beauties and we headed here," I said, finishing our side of the recap and showing off my new swords.

We had already ordered lunch and decided to use our time by trading stories of what we heard and what we would have to do next. Vivi was more than happy to talk about the Black Mage Village. Never before had I heard the phrase "It was so cool" used that many times in five minutes.

"And they're sure they saw Kuja?" Zidane asked.

"Absolutely," I answered. "So now we just need to leave on the western side of the city here and find him and whatever he's hiding."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Zidane decided. "We'll leave first thing tomorrow."

"No, it not work!" Quina said. "I go to exit. Green people guard the exit. Not able to leave."

"They won't let us leave the city?" Dagger asked. "Why not?"

"What if we went back to the Black Mages?" Vivi asked. "Maybe they know a way around."

"There's gotta be something else we can do," Zidane said. "Did they say why they wouldn't let you leave?"

Quina shook his head. "Something about thief. But it not me. I not thief!"

"No one said you were."

"I not thief!"

There was a momentary silence. Zidane turned to me and asked, "Trevor, do you know anything we can do about this?"

"I'll ask around," I said. "Maybe if we talk to some of the villagers they'll let us through."

"It's amazing that you can even understand them."

"It's a talent."

Our food came suddenly. A dwarf yelled something at us from the kitchen and laid a few plates out on the counter next to the kitchen door, then left.

"I guess we have to get the food ourselves," I said.

Zidane and I walked over and handed the food off to the others. I had only ordered some roasted griffin and wasn't expecting much, but Quina was right. The food looked fantastic. Steam rolled off it and a light glaze coated the cut of meat. It looked amazingly good compared to what I expected.

"So, there's something you guys have to explain," I told Zidane and Dagger as we were all seated with our food in front of us.

"What?" Zidane asked. "We already told you about the assassin who's looking for Dagger."

"No, not that." I could feel the mood darkening already. "In Lindblum, after we were separated, I found a group of Alexandrian soldiers."

By now, Quina was the only one eating. The rest of us knew where this was going. We didn't like reflecting on the destruction of Lindblum, but I had to sate my curiosity.

I took a shallow breath. "The soldiers said that you two had crashed into the side of the castle. I saw the explosion myself. How the hell did you get out of there?"

Zidane stopped cutting up the chunk of meat he had ordered and rested his head on his hands. He took a deep breath before he started talking.

"It wasn't easy," he smirked.

XXXXXXXX

_The skimmer soared through the air, finally catching up with the Red Rose as it veered towards the air dock in Lindblum Grand Castle. Zidane flew to the back of the ship and took aim._

"_Alright, I'm going to ram into the side right next to her!" he said. "Hang on and get ready to jump aboard."_

"_This is by a wide margin the most insane thing you've ever done!" Dagger scolded._

"_Get ready!" Zidane shouted. "Brace for—"_

_Their skimmer was suddenly hit. It rocked violently and Zidane struggled to regain control. The metal screamed as the fire ate away at the undercarriage._

"_What the hell happened?" Zidane yelled as he fought the controls._

"_There are Black Mages standing with mother!" Dagger called back. "One of them must have hit us!"_

_Another impact came, striking the engine and cutting the power to the skimmer. It zoomed out of control, flying below the Red Rose and towards the castle._

"_We're hit!"_

"_Dammit! I can't control it!" Zidane yelled. He grabbed Dagger and held on as the walls came closer at an insanely high speed._

_Dagger was frozen. She held on to Zidane's arm too tightly. Zidane struggled to keep the skimmer level with his other hand, but between Dagger weighing him down and the airship crumbling beneath them, there was nothing he could do. They bobbed and weaved out of control._

This is it! _Zidane realized. He body tensed and he clenched every muscle in his body. He held his breath…_

_The airship took another dip and headed for a different section of wall. Zidane's eyes wandered at first, but he quickly saw their salvation._

_They were heading straight for a window._

_Zidane reacted instantly. He pulled back on the wheel and increased the throttle. The airship aimed right for the window and picked up speed._

"_Dagger, we need to move!" he said._

_Dagger was still nervous, but she nodded. She got to her feet and followed him to the front of the skimmer._

"_Get ready to jump!" Zidane yelled._

_The nose dipped down from their weight. The wall came closer. Closer…_

"_Now!"_

_The two leapt at the same time. Zidane twisted at the last second and hit the glass first. It gave way just as the airship crashed. The fireball grazed their legs as they escaped into the castle._

_Zidane took the most of the impact. He landed hard on the stone floor. The wind was knocked out of his lungs. He felt pain everywhere._

"_Zidane…" Dagger wheezed. "You're holding me too tight. I can't breath."_

_But he didn't let up. He kept holding her._

"_Zidane?"_

_And Dagger suddenly knew why. Zidane's body was torn up from head to toe. His legs were burned. He was cut everywhere. Small shards of glass were embedded all over his body. His right arm was broken and his shoulder was dislocated. He could barely breath and was going into shock._

"_Zidane!" Dagger cried out. She pushed against him as hard as she could, causing him to cough out a mouthful of blood._

"_Hang on!" she said. "I'll cure you."_

_Dagger grabbed her staff and drew some power from it. She focused the magic and concentrated on Zidane's limp form._

"_Cure!"_

_A white light engulfed Zidane. It settled over him for a few seconds. Some of the skin healed on his legs and some of the glass fell out of his arm, but that was it. The magic wasn't strong enough._

_Dagger started to panic. Zidane was still loosing a lot of blood. It was starting to pool underneath him._

"_Cure!" she tried again. The light covered Zidane again and fixed his broken arm, but nothing else._

"_No!" she cried as a tear dripped down her cheek. "No, no, no!"_

_She couldn't heal him. She didn't have enough power. Zidane was going to die here with her because he tried to save her. Dagger started to cry. She hated herself for being so weak. She hated herself for not being able to help._

"_Dagger…" Zidane gasped. He pointed above his head. Dagger followed it and saw what he was pointing at._

_They had crashed into a storage room. There, a few feet away, was another healing staff with a glowing green orb at the top. Maybe, if she had that…_

"_Hang on!" she said. Her legs were singed, so she crawled to the hanger the staff was resting on. She reached for it, dropping her old staff and twisting around quickly to lean over Zidane. She concentrated again. This magic was stronger and there was more of it. She knew she could do it this time._

"_Cura!"_

_A white and green wind swirled around Zidane. It covered him like the last spell, but this time it seeped into his wounds. In a matter of seconds, his shoulder popped back into place, the burns on his legs were healed, the rest of the glass was pulled from his body and he started recovering his lost blood._

_He let out a breath. Not a staggering one like he had been doing, but a calm one._

"_Good job," the thief said with a smile._

_Dagger laughed with him out of relief. Things were going to be okay now._

XXXXXXXX

"And that's it," Zidane finished his story. "We had to camp out in that room for a day and a half while we recovered. The next day, we snuck out of the castle and ran into Regent Cid. He told us to head to the marsh and that you were two days ahead of us."

"Damn," I said, amazed. "And here I thought I pulled some badass things."

"Well, we can't all be astounding," Zidane joked. He stole a quick glance at Dagger to see if she was looking at him. She was instead trying to cut up the tough sandwich she had ordered.

"Alright," Zidane said, trying to regain composure. "Now all we have to do is find a way to get out of the city."

"We should ask around town," I said. "The village is organized, so they might have a leader, or an elder."

"Good idea. We'll start asking around after lunch."

Lunch was a bit of a rush. We ate quickly and didn't talk much. I didn't know about Zidane and Dagger, but I hadn't eaten well the last few days. I had to imagine that their situation was even worse than mine though. Vivi and I had Quina to cook things for us on our journey.

"That was delicious," Dagger said as she finished her sandwich. "Thanks for recommending what to order Quina."

"You welcome," he said with a happy nod.

"We should get going," Zidane said, standing up. "We need to find someone who's in charge to let us through."

"It'll be faster if we split up," Dagger suggested.

"What?" Vivi blurted out. "But we just found each other!"

"I know Vivi, but we need to find a way out of here as quickly as possible. We don't know how long Kuja's going to be around here."

"She's right," I said. "We'll split up into the groups we were in before. Vivi, Quina and I will check out one side of the village. Zidane and Dagger will check out some other part."

"That will work," Dagger said.

Zidane stood behind her and gave me a thumbs up. He mouthed the words "Thank you".

"We'll meet back at the center of town, near that big hole in the floor with the light. Have you guys seen it?"

"Yeah," Dagger said. "We know where to go."

"Meet back in an hour," I said. "Vivi, Quina, let's go."

I lead my team out of the restaurant. We headed towards the grocery store since that was the farthest place I could think to go, giving Zidane and Dagger plenty of time alone.

"So, who should we look for?" Vivi asked. "Everyone here looks the same."

"Someone who stands out," I said. "Maybe he's taller or wears better clothes. Something like that."

"Okay. If you say so."

We spent several minutes just loitering among the crowd. I kept an eye out for the head priest we were supposed to meet. Who knew how things were going to play out. The last week and a half had been so unpredictable that there was no way to tell how else it was going to get screwed up. But, as I had expected, every dwarf we passed looked the same as the one before him.

"What do you think is beyond the city?" Vivi asked about halfway into our search.

"I dunno," I told him. "Rocks… dirt… more dirt… a flower…"

"No, I mean the secret Kuja's supposed to have out there. What do you think it is?"

"Good question. Probably some all-powerful weapon."

"Do you think it's something that simple? It doesn't sound like him. He's more… uh…"

"Deceptive?"

"Yeah, that."

"I say don't worry about it. We'll find it and stop him however we can."

Quina smiled wide. "I hope there yummy food there!"

"Maybe," I said back to him. "Why don't we start heading back to the rendezvous point?"

"Isn't it a little early?" Vivi asked.

"Maybe, but we'll be able to search more from there. It's better than hanging around in one spot all day.

Besides, Zidane and Dagger had probably had enough time together. I had to save the princess before Zidane flirted with her to death.

By the time we got there, the center room was mostly empty. Only a few dwarves were wandering through the halls, but they were in a rush. Something was going on, but I didn't know what.

"Look!" Vivi said, pointing to the other side of the large room. "There they are."

Zidane and Dagger were standing by the small boat hanging over the hole in the floor. Dagger was busy looking around the boat and examining it. She walked onto one of the support bridges leading to the boat. Zidane however, was leaning against the far wall. He seemed to be avoiding Dagger's gaze.

"Hey guys," I called out. "How'd it go? Find anyone?"

"Yes," Dagger said. "I think we found a priest who can get us through. But…"

"But what?" Vivi asked.

"Two of us have to get married," Zidane said.

"What?"

"It's not a big deal," Dagger said. "I mean, it's a small ceremony that will get us passed the gate. Nothing more."

"Are you kidding?" Zidane said, exasperated. "This is marriage we're talking about! M-A-R-R-I-A-G-E!"

"It's not like it would have to count," I said. "We're outside the legal influence of Alexandria and Lindblum. No one on the Mist Continent would consider this a real marriage either."

"Trevor!" Zidane said. "I can't believe you're siding with her like this!"

"It'll be like putting on a play," Dagger said. "I'll get married with Trevor while the rest of you sneak through the back gate."

"What?" Zidane said. He sounded heart-broken. "How come he gets to go with you?"

"Because he doesn't think of this as the real thing. It won't matter for him either."

_I'm such a stud._

"Not fair," Zidane muttered. Dagger didn't seem to hear him, but I started to feel sorry for the guy. I walked over to him and took him to one side.

"You alright man?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "It's just… this whole thing, you know?"

"Let me guess… you wanted to be in my spot."

"Kinda. But this whole thing is overwhelming."

"That's why apathy can be your friend. Just don't think about it as a big deal and it won't be a big deal. It's how I handle exams in my classes."

"I don't get it though. She's supposed to get mad and say 'No way'."

I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. "She doesn't really consider it a big deal. Neither should you."

"Yeah, you're probably right." He sighed.

I just rolled my eyes. "Fine. How about this… Can you understand what the dwarves here are saying?"

"Barely. Why?"

"I can understand them. And if you can't, then we should switch places. What if you're trying to sneak passed them and you can't come up with a decent excuse for it?"

"I could probably knock him out and run."

"Let's try to be a little more diplomatic than that. Besides, my plan pairs you up with Dagger."

Zidane stared at me blankly for a moment. "Good point. Let's go with your idea."

I patted him on the shoulder. "I got your back," I said with a grin.

We walked back to the others. Dagger and Vivi were talking. Given how excited Vivi seemed, my guess was that he was talking more about the Black Mage Village. By the time this was all over, he was probably going to have a nice house there.

"Ok, new plan," I told the others. "Zidane and Dagger are getting hitched. Vivi and Quina will follow me as we sneak out of the city."

"What?" Dagger said. "Are you sure? I thought that it would be easier for Zidane to sneak passed the guards."

"I can sneak nearly as well as him," I said. "I just haven't had a chance to show it off much. You don't have a problem with it, do you?"

"N-no," she said shyly. She took a breath. "You're right. It doesn't matter. The ceremony is supposed to be later today. We'll need to be ready."

"It takes an hour to plan a wedding?" I asked. "Simpler world."

"World?" Zidane asked. "What does that mean?"

My eyes went wide as I realized the faux pas just as it left my lips. Could they figure out that I'm not from Gaia? I swore at myself as I desperately searched my mind for a lie believable enough to cover it up.

"Uh…I…"

"It is a weird thing to say," Dagger agreed.

I felt my pulse ringing in my ears. The blood raced through my veins. I could feel the panic starting to come on.

"I was… being poetic," I said. "Different culture, different world, you know? They're just different."

I held my breath as I waited to see if they bought it. Their gazes pierced through me and examined every inch of me, like I was wearing this lie on my sleeve.

"Whatever," Zidane said.

I silently let out a long breath. A huge weight lifted itself from my shoulders. I had to be more careful.

"Anyway," Zidane started. "We should figure out how you three are going to sneak out." He wrapped an arm around Dagger's shoulder. "The happy couple has to get ready for our big day."

Dagger shrugged his arm off and sighed. This was going to be an interesting rest of the day.

XXXXXXXX

The wedding started without a hitch.

The high priest, some dwarf named David Heavenguard, was standing on a raised platform, looking down at Zidane and Dagger as they stood together, hand in hand, on the little boat. Dagger had an air of royalty and seemed to treat the ceremony like it some just another royal event. Zidane actually looked nervous. Years of acting and breaking into people's houses had cured him of that, or so I had thought. Vivi, Quina and I stood off to one side of the platform the priest was on.

"Speerits o' the moontain, Speerits o' the wood…" Heavenguard recited. "Watch ower this man an' woman as they begin their journey…"

The wedding was small and not the least bit thought out. The most the dwarves had done to fix the room up for now was to open more of the window shades above us, allowing even more glistening light to shine onto the boat.

"...In sickness an' in health..."

Even the dwarves seemed underwhelmed by the whole experience. Only a dozen couples had shown up, and most of them looked bored out of their skulls. They were just going along with it because if Zidane and Dagger got married, then they would be the 100th couple in the village. OCD could make people so happy sometimes.

"...Have the strength to carry ye through the trials..."

I yawned. The guy had been jabbering away for a good twenty minutes straight. I only paid attention every few minutes to see how far along he was. I was too busy daydreaming about my new swords. I couldn't wait to test them out.

"...An' the wisdom tae follow the path..."

Vivi groaned next to me. "Is he almost done?" he whispered. "I'm really tired. Why couldn't we have gotten chairs to sit in?"

"I don't know," I said. "I think it's almost over, so hang on."

"But I'm really tired!"

"Just don't think about it. Look at Quina. He doesn't mind it."

"Quina's asleep."

I took another glance at the Qu. Sure enough, his eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady.

"Quina!" I said as loudly as I could in a whisper. "Wake the hell up!"

I swung a quick slap to the back of Quina's head. He woke up startled and looked around in a panic.

"I awake! I make breakfast!"

I and a few dwarves shushed him. I signaled for him to be quiet and relax. It was almost done anyway.

Heavenguard clapped his hands together once. "May the blessin's o' heaven be upon this man an' woman!"

There was cheering and clapping from the crowd. I clapped in order to keep up appearances. A dwarf walked onto the boat and escorted the "newlyweds" off. Vivi, Quina and I walked around to meet them once they were off.

"Grats you two," I said. "Should we get you a private room and some wine? Maybe some nice incense and music?"

Dagger blushed a deep scarlet. "Shut up. Can we just leave?"

"Not yet," Zidane said. "It's time for the kiss!"

Zidane leaned in and puckered up. Dagger recoiled and moved away just as he launched himself at her. He missed, badly, and landed on his face. Dagger ignored the grunt of pain and headed towards the exit.

Zidane pushed himself up, rubbing his sore nose. "Playing hard to get, huh?"

I offered him a hand. "You really should control yourself around her. I think she's a little embarrassed."

"Yeah, but can you blame me?" he asked.

"I suppose not. I was the same way when I was younger."

"Oh?" Zidane said with a nudge to my ribs. "Ever get anywhere?"

I started walking towards the exit. "That's rather direct."

"C'mon, just tell me."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Her name was Nicole."

"Oh really? How far'd you get with her?"

I just glared at him.

"Aha! I knew it! You dog." He gave me a quick punch to the shoulder. "Is she cute?"

"She _was_ cute. She looked like Dagger, but with shorter hair."

"Was? Oh, sorry. You guys broke up?"

"Something like that. It was a few years ago, so don't worry about it."

But the truth was, it _did_ bother me. I ran my fingers across my eyes. I could remember yelling and screaming. I squeezed against my temples to shut it up. It was far from a good break-up.

The next thing I knew, we had reached the far end of the village. The western gate was before us and two large dwarves were guarding it.

Zidane just smiled. "Hi, guys! We're the newlyweds, Zidane and Dagger."

Zidane wasn't phased by their size, but I was. These guards were nearly as tall as I was. How the hell was I going to sneak passed them?

"Rally-ho!" one guard said. "Happy fit! Off tae the Sanctuary then, are ye?"

Dagger nodded. "That's right. Will you let us through now?"

"Rally-ho! O' coorse! Safe journey tae both o' ye!"

Zidane took Dagger by the hand and gave a bow. "Let us be off, my darling!"

They started off down the root connecting the village to the cliff side. The rest of us began to follow when the guards both got in our way.

"Where're ye goin'?" one of them asked.

"Uh, we're with them," I tried to explain. _This is it,_ I told myself. _Just gotta find a way through these guys._

The dwarves didn't seem to care. They put their hands on their hips and leaned in angrily. I almost thought they looked like disgruntled housewives from the 50's, like in all those old cartoons.

"Ifn ye think ye're getting' through us, yer wrong."

"Wait, let me explain."

Suddenly, someone yelled behind us. "Thief!"

It was enough to distract everyone there. We all looked back into the city and saw a kid run around the corner and dash towards us. It was a little girl, with short purple hair and strange yellow poofy pants and a pink shirt that looked four sizes too big for her. She even had a big yellow ribbon on her head and a small set of wings on her back. Oddly enough, she even had a small horn just above her forehead. She stopped for a moment and turned around.

"Mog!" she called back. "Hurry!"

A moogle came flying around the corner as well. A small one at that. This one had strange purple wings and an orange pom-pom on her head. I hadn't seen a moogle since… the Ice Cavern. Had it really been that long?

The moogle carried a loaf of bread and the girl's pockets were full of fruit. As soon as the moogle had caught up to the girl, it landed on her shoulder to rest. The girl took off as quickly as she could, eluding the guards who were chasing her.

"Stop, thief!" the watchmen yelled, to no avail. The girl was gone by the time they reached the doorway. They growled angrily as she escaped.

It was just the chance we needed. "Run guys!" I shouted. I pushed my way through the off-guard guards. Vivi squeezed through quicker than I did and Quina flat-out bowled them over. Zidane and Dagger were waiting for us at the cliff.

"Wh-What's going on?" Dagger asked quickly.

"No time!" I said, running passed her. "Go!"

The rest of the party figured it out pretty quickly and followed behind me. I lead everyone beyond the city's reach and around the cliff. The path lead into the rocks and away from the five hundred foot pitfall. We were surrounded by dirt and boulders as we walked between more cliffs. They raised themselves high as the mountain pass dropped down, deeper and deeper.

Up ahead, we heard a small scream. It sounded like the little thief we just saw.

"What was that?" Vivi asked.

"Probably that girl from before," Zidane said. "She might be hurt."

"She's fine," Dagger assured us. "Look."

Up ahead, we saw the girl hanging from a branch sticking out of the cliff side. There were two paths up ahead. She had run along the higher path and slipped, catching her wings on a branch. Now she was stuck and helpless.

She was struggling desperately to free herself, but she couldn't reach behind herself. "Hurry Mog!" she said to the moogle floating next to her. "Before we're caught!"

The small moogle hovered uselessly and just let out a sad 'Kupo'. Taking her eyes off of her friend, the moogle spotted us from the path coming down and started to back away.

"What's wrong Mog?" the girl asked.

"Kupo!" the moogle shouted. She quickly turned and fled.

"W-Wait! Don't leave me here!" The girl reached out for her fleeing friend, then gave up and sighed. "Stuck on a branch... Betrayed by my own trusted moogle… Is this how I meet my end? Mog, I'm gonna haunt you if I die here!"

We had finally reached the branch the girl was hanging on. We stood below her and looked up, but Quina took the high road and stood where she had slipped. She stared at us curiously for a moment, then started panicking.

"Huh! AHHH! Help! Don't eat me! I won't taste good! It's true! I taste awful!"

Zidane chuckled. "You heard her, Quina."

"I see. Too bad," Quina said "But moogle that ran away a very strange color. I go find and eat it."

"No, don't!" the girl protested.

Quina didn't listen. He dashed forth, brushing part of the branch enough to knock the girl loose. She yelped as she fell right into Zidane's arms.

"Gotcha!"

Quina disappeared from sight. We were left with a little girl, still in Zidane's arms, staring at him like she had just seen an angel. After an awkward moment, she pushed away and stood on her own.

"Th-Thanks..." she muttered.

"Are you okay?" Dagger asked.

"Yeah..."

"You're not hurt?"

"I told you I'm okay!" the girl shouted. "I'm not a child, like that kid in blue!"

Vivi blinked in confusion. "But… you don't look any older than me."

"Are you kidding!" she shouted again. "And I do have a name, you know! The name's Eiko! Shouldn't you introduce yourself before addressing a lady?"

"You introduced yourself first," Vivi defended hesitantly.

"You got a problem!"

Eiko's personality was a tad more grating than I had remembered from the game. Still, she would be a pretty good ally as the story went on. I made a note not to get too involved with her, lest I earned her wrath. I had a hard enough time dealing with kids as it was.

"It's nice to meet you Eiko," Dagger said. "I'm Dagger, and this is Vivi, and this is Trevor."

It did little to relieve the tension. "Yeah?" Eiko said. She looked at Zidane again. "What about you?"

"Me?" he asked. "I'm Zidane."

"Zidane," Eiko nodded. "Alright." She acted like it was the only name she was going to try to remember.

"So, Miss Eiko," Zidane said. "Why did you steal from the village?"

"I was hungry." Right on cue, Eiko's stomach growled.

Some of us shared a small laugh. "You sound just like Quina. Hey, did he really go chasing after that moogle?"

"Oh no!" Eiko realized. "He's gonna eat Mog!"

"I don't think Quina would eat a moogle." Dagger said. "I'm sure Mog will be fine."

"I dunno," I said. "Earlier, he was talking about a moogle flambé recipe he knew."

"WHAT?"

"Trevor!" Dagger scolded.

I laughed. This was going to be a fun trip.

"Do you live nearby, Eiko?" Dagger asked, trying to recover from my "dumb" comment.

"Yeah, beyond this path," Eiko nodded. "I'm sure Mog went home."

"Good," Dagger said. "Why don't we take her home?"

"Yes, yes," Zidane agreed. "Anything for my lovely wife."

Eiko's eyes shot open, then settled into a look of disappointment. "You two are married!"

"Yep, we're newlyweds."

"No, no. We're just friends."

Zidane's shoulder's slumped at his "wife's" rejection. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing."

This made Eiko happy. She perked up and said, "I wanna be your friend, too!"

Zidane nodded. He took back his usual calm air of leadership. "Alright, then, let's go to our new friend's house."

"Let's hurry!" Eiko said. "Mog might be scared."

She took off running. The rest of us followed at a steady pace.

"Is your home far Eiko?" Dagger asked.

"No. It's just through the mountains. We'll be there before sunset."

We took off to the west. The sun was overhead and shined right in our faces. I sighed and rubbed my temples as my headache slowly came back.

XXXXXXXX

There we go. Wasn't that fun? I know I enjoyed writing it. Especially the part where Trevor got his new weapons. And if you think that's cool, just wait until he actually uses them. XD

Something that I found interesting while editing this though was how many times I have to "correct" the dwarves' language in order for it to be the right kind of incorrect. Cool accent, but weird to write. :P

I guess I could call this the chapter of the upgrades too, since everyone got an upgrade somehow. Well, except for Zidane. Vivi got a hat, Trevor and Dagger got new weapons and Quina… well, after all that eating, he might actually be full, so that's an upgrade, right?

Well, that's the end of it all now. 31 pages of story and over 9600 words. I'm going to go pass out for a while and see you guys next month. :D

(P.S. More reviews means I edit my work better ^^)


	20. The Dead Village

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Well, because I don't have a job, and thus too much time on my hands, I have decided to delve into the world of Machinima. For those of you who don't know, Machinima (machine cinema) is taking images and clips from video games to make a movie. Check out _Red vs. Blue_ or _Tales of the Past_ to know what I'm talking about. Also because they're really damn cool. XD

I tell you this mostly because I'm egotistical as hell, but also because I need to find some decent editing software to use and details on how to use it. Or even better, someone who can do the editing for me. :D

The help isn't vital since I have a production crew helping me (ok, so it's some friends over Warcraft :P), but none of us know what we're doing and anything can help at this point.

And one more note: due to popular request (and the realization that I've been screwing up as of late .), this chapter is Kaiten-heavy. Enjoy. XD

Chapter 19- The Dead Village

XXXXXXXX

I had to admit, we were making better progress than I thought we would.

Eiko had led us along the mountain path confidently, weaving in and out of the canyons and cliffs. Giant roots were scattered now and then, but the further we went, the bigger and more common they became. I began imagining what it would be like if the roots took over and made up the canyons by themselves.

"Are we almost there?" Zidane asked. "It's getting pretty late."

"We're close," Eiko said. "It's just over this bridge, then through another canyon, then down a long corridor, then across a big plain. Then we're there."

"You make it sound so short."

Eventually, we came to the bridge Eiko was talking about. It wasn't a rock ledge or anything, but another root. Go figure. It branched up and over our heads as we passed under it. It reached up, connecting with a ridge next to us. It looked like the only way to go on.

"Climb this!" Eiko said excitedly. "You get a great view of everything around us."

She ran ahead, dashing up the root and waited for us at the top. "Come on!" she yelled down.

Zidane shrugged and we all followed her up.

Eiko was right though. The view was amazing. At the pinnacle, we could see everything around for miles. The sun was setting in the west, behind the largest tree I had ever seen in my life.

"Whoa…" Dagger said. "That's amazing!"

"Do you think that's the sanctuary?" Zidane asked.

"It must be. It's the only thing out here."

The sunset behind the tree made it look like it was on fire. The reds and oranges of the sky emanated from the back and amplified the shadows before it. We were in awe.

"Damn nice view," I said. "Think that's what Kuja's big secret was?"

Zidane nodded. "Probably. It's worth checking out at least." He turned to the little girl. "Eiko, do you think you can take us there tomorrow?"

But she wasn't listening. She was staring down the path, like she was waiting for something.

"Eiko?"

"Shh…" she said quickly. "He's coming."

A second later, the ground started shaking. Eiko hugged the ground and tried to hide herself.

"Stay down!" she hissed. "He's coming!"

Of course, none of us complied.

We saw why she was scared coming down the fork up ahead. A large, green giant was stomping his way around, shaking the ground and nearby rocks. It wore pants big enough to fit an elephant and a rounded gauntlet with a blade covering his knuckles. It looked like an uglier version of the Hulk.

"That's Hilgigars," Eiko whispered.

"He doesn't look that tough," Zidane said. "I bet we can take him."

"What? Are you crazy?"

"I agree," I said. "I want to test these out on something that can put up a fight." I pulled my new swords out and held them at my sides.

"Let's go!" Zidane shouted. He ran down the root and jumped in front of the giant. I was right behind him, landing right next to him.

"You three stay there!" Zidane yelled at Vivi and the girls. "Protect Eiko and keep her safe!"

"I can fight!" Eiko protested.

"Stay behind me," Dagger said, moving in front. She, Eiko and Vivi stayed on the root.

Hilgigars saw Zidane and I standing in front of him. It stared for a moment, confused. It took a few seconds before his brain could kick in, telling him to attack us. It roared in anger, then broke into a charge.

"Come on!" I yelled, clanging my short swords together.

Hilgigars was larger than I thought he was. By the time he reached us, he towered a good ten feet above us. But, with his height came a massive disadvantage in speed and telegraphing his movements. He pulled back his arms, readying a punch that he shot into the ground. Zidane and I dodged easily, I to the side and he between the giant's legs.

Zidane got the first attack in when he slashed at the giant's legs, cutting deep and spraying blood all over. Hilgigars screamed in pain and fell to his knees.

It was my turn.

"Let's see what this one does," I said, charging up Crimson. As I dashed in, steam rose from the red blade. I almost expected it to catch on fire. I held the blade above myself, but at the last moment, as my blade made contact, the steam erupted, springing forth from the blade instead of the Demon Saber that I expected. A cloud of energy hung over the cut in Hilgigars' shoulder.

I was underwhelmed. I had hoped for a huge explosion or something, but all I got was a cloud. A cloud with a small spark in the middle of it.

My eyes went wide. _Uh oh._

I rolled away, hugging the ground just as a huge _BOOM_ roared behind me. There was a wave of energy that flowed over me, but the giant took most of it. I turned back and saw Hilgigars holding its shoulder, now burned to a crisp.

_Dude!_ I realized._ I'm carrying a fuel-air bomb!_

The pain didn't phase Hilgigars long though. As he got back to his feet, he pulled back his good arm for another punch. But before the hit reached me, I was covered in a strange light. It washed over me surrounding me like an eggshell. When Hilgigars finally reached me, I was knocked on my ass, but I was otherwise fine.

I looked back at the root and saw Dagger smiling. I loved white magic.

"Back here big guy!"

I looked back at my enemy in time to see Zidane had jumped onto its back, plunging his daggers deep into the green skin.

The monster shouted in surprise and agony. He stood and spun, desperately trying to reach the blonde thief. Zidane, safe from harm where he was on Hilgigars' back, just climbed higher, digging his blades in new places as he ascended like he was climbing a telephone pole.

I chuckled briefly, powering up Azure this time. I hadn't expected to get them some decent combat quite like this, but I didn't care. Now I could find out what my new swords did.

Water started dripping off Azure. It pooled beneath me slowly. While Zidane kept the lumbering giant busy, I ran up behind it. The water followed me, still dripping. I splashed some of the strange water on to the enormous leg. It was difficult since it was thrashing around, but I managed to soak most of its pant leg.

I tried to form another Demon Saber, just like before. Instead, there was a spark at the tip of the blade. Suddenly, the water burst, exploding only the surface where the liquid was gathered.

Hilgigars felt the shock and leapt in pain. Zidane fell from its back and landed next to me.

"Warn me next time you're going to do something like that!" he said.

"Sorry," I said. "Wasn't sure that would happen."

Hilgigars jumped and howled in pain. It's pant leg, and only its pant leg fortunately, was burned away. The skin beneath it was badly singed. The leg was probably useless now.

"No!" Eiko yelled from the root. "That's not enough to kill him!"

"Don't worry about it," I said with a twirl of my blades. "We're just having fun."

"I think we should get you a new hobby," Zidane remarked.

"Well, I did enjoy cross stitching for a while, but I had to leave that back in Alexandria."

"_Interesting weapons._"

_Kaiten?_ I thought. I tried to keep my distance from Hilgigars so that it wouldn't catch me off guard._ What are you doing?_

"_Just watching the fight. Those are some good swords._"

_Thanks. Top quality stuff so far. Very well balanced._

"_Good._" He laughed a little. "_I want them._"

_You want to give these a try?_

"_Yup._"

_I don't have a choice, do I?_

"_Not really._"

I sighed. _Alright, go ahead._

I could feel Kaiten's influence already spreading. I decided not to fight it and let him take over. I lost feeling in more of my muscles as the numbness washed over me. Within seconds, I was sitting back within my own mind, watching everything but without any control.

"Stand back monkey boy," Kaiten said gruffly. "I'm going to try something."

Zidane looked at me curiously. "Are you alright Trevor? You sound different."

"Just enjoying myself," he grinned.

Hilgigars had finally stopped hopping around. He groaned pitifully, testing his leg if he could put weight on it. Damaged as it was, it seemed that he could, at least a little bit. It hobbled towards us, awkwardly trying not to fall.

"Too easy," Kaiten said. He started powering up Azure. The water started dripping off the blade and collected beneath him. Kaiten turned back to Zidane with a smirk. "You should really be running. This is going to be big."

Zidane nodded and ran back to the root. Kaiten just stood his ground and the enraged giant made its way forward. It was intent on crushing the little annoyances it saw before itself.

"_Kaiten?" _I asked. "_What are you doing?"_

_You'll see,_ he thought back. _Call it a trick for you to use if you feel like showing off._

By now there was a substantial amount of water on the ground, and Hilgigars was only a few feet away. It raised a hand to strike.

"_Kaiten?"_

"Now!"

As Hilgigars struck, Kaiten dodged, running towards the monster and sliding between its legs. He slashed the giant's bad leg, causing it to roar in pain and fall face first into the puddle of water left by Azure.

"_Was that it?"_

_Not by a long shot_.

Kaiten quickly powered up Crimson. The red blade fumed with power and ignited. There was a thin trail of water left by Azure between Hilgigars' legs. Another cloud of smoke rested where Crimson hit the ground. Kaiten backed off as quickly as he could and stood a few feet away to watch.

What happened next was incredible.

The cloud exploded in another fuel-air bomb type of explosion. Hilgigars' damaged leg was nearly blown off. Now it was crusted and bloody, beyond repair. His other leg and his backside were also badly burned. Blood was already starting to soak the ground. Even better, the explosion caused the water to ignite. It lit like a fuse and traveled to the puddle that Hilgigars was still laying on. After a second of heavy silence, the ground erupted, throwing chunks of rock and green flesh off in all directions. After a moment, Kaiten chuckled and sheathed Crimson and Azure.

I could only watch in amazement. "_That… was cool."_

_Yes it was._ Kaiten smiled. _I noticed that the sparks that blew up the cloud from the red blade were the same as the ones that ignited the water from the blue blade. Looks like you can switch them if needed._

"_Good thing to remember. Nice work._"

"Trevor!" Zidane said, running to me. "That was incredible! How did you know you could do that?"

"I'm just good like that," Kaiten said with an arrogant shrug. "Maybe you could learn a few things if you let me take the lead."

Zidane raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what's with you? You're acting weird."

"Maybe this is how I really am," Kaiten joked. "Maybe you normally see me when I'm acting weird."

"_Geez Kaiten!"_ I yelled. _"Are you trying to get us found out?_"

_Relax. Who could possibly make such a leap in logic so stupid that they think a person acting weird means they were implanted with the soul of a warrior from another planet?_

"_A creationist?_"

_Good point._

"Now I get it!" Zidane said. I froze up, hoping that he hadn't discovered something from Kaiten's dumb joke.

"What are you talking about?" Kaiten asked.

"It's your eyes. They kinda look just like they did after we left Lindblum to save Burmecia."

"Oh really?" Kaiten pulled out Azure so he could use it as a mirror. He held it up to my face. Sure enough, my eyes had changed. Instead of my normal blues, they were now blood red. It was the most revealing sign that Kaiten and I had changed places.

"What does that mean?" Zidane asked.

"Not much," Kaiten said. "It just means the crazy in me broke out and is running havoc."

"Um… alright," Zidane said. "Just as long as you're okay."

Just then, Hilgigars started to twitch. It groaned and pushed itself up on its one good hand. The other had strings of flesh hanging off the bone.

"That thing's still alive?" Zidane said.

"It won't take much to kill it," Kaiten said. "Take its left side. I'll get the right."

"Wait a second," Zidane said with a hand up. "You hear that?"

There was music. Someone was playing a simple tune on a flute. I looked over and saw Eiko, still on the root, playing away. She glanced at us. Her grim expression seemed to tell us to move out of the way.

I had been waiting for this. Kaiten knew what it was too. He grabbed Zidane and pulled him further down the path.

"What's going on?" Zidane asked.

"The brat's doing something," Kaiten said. He pointed to the top of a nearby cliff. "Look!"

Light was starting to concentrate at the cliff side. As it cleared, a very large wolf, covered in white and blue fur, came into place. It looked fiercely over the battlefield, gazing down at the injured Hilgigars.

Fenrir, the Earthen Eidolon.

Fenrir howled. The earth crumbled before him and a stone golem rose into the sky. It had a flat face, glowing green eyes and pointed horns atop its head. It was so big that it dwarfed Hilgigars.

The giant didn't stand a chance. The ground started to shake beneath it. Cracks formed around the giant seconds before a massive hand burst forth, launching Hilgigars high into the air and over a nearby ridge, sending it out of sight.

The hand and the golem sank back into the ground, resetting everything as if nothing had happened. Fenrir gave Eiko a nod before bursting into several strings of light and disappearing.

Needless to say, everyone was speechless. Eiko was the only one who seemed unnerved.

"Thanks guys," she said. "That monster shows up from time to time. I usually just run away. I've never had enough time to summon Fenrir to help me."

"That was an Eidolon?" Zidane said.

"Yup!" Eiko said happily. "Impressed? I'm the only one who can summon Fenrir now."

Up until now, we had seen Eidolons used in such widespread destruction that their use could only be considered an atrocity. Dagger's sad eyes reflected what the rest of us were feeling. Eidolons were powerful—and most of all dangerous—creatures.

That's when I remembered.

"_Hey! I still haven't given Dagger the peridot that Ramuh gave me._"

_True,_ Kaiten thought. _I'll do it._

"_Can't I just have my body back?_"

_I haven't had a chance to have some fun in a while. You'll get it back._

Kaiten was the only one who knew how to switch our souls back and forth, so I couldn't do anything against him. I just sighed and agreed to let him have his fun. "_Fine, but don't do anything conspicuous. I don't need these guys finding out about our situation._"

"Hey princess!" Kaiten blurted out. "I've got something for you."

"_Did you hear a damn word I just said?_"

"Um… what is it?" Dagger asked. Kaiten was really pushing it by now. He just flicked his hand out of his pocket and lobbed the peridot at her. Dagger caught the green gem and cupped it in both hands.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Some green rock," Kaiten answered.

"_Very astute._"

_Shuddup._

Kaiten continued explaining. "When the kid and I crashed in Pinnacle rocks, we met some old guy. Called himself Ramuh. Said he wanted you to have this."

"Ramuh?" Eiko said. Her mouth was wide open. "The Thunder God gave you his summoning stone?"

"Apparently. You know him?"

Eiko then went into what could best be called, a "fangasm". "He's one of the center Eidolons along with Shiva and Ifrit! He can control clouds, thunder and lightning with his staff! There are stories of him stopping an entire flood by destroying a field to make a barrier wall! And he was lost hundreds of years ago! How did you find him?"

"Crashed a gargant into a field and hit my head on a rock."

Eiko's stunned looked of bewilderment was hilarious.

Dagger held the green stone up once again. "So… I can summon eidolons too?"

Kaiten nodded. "Just like the brat, yeah."

"Hey!" Eiko said, snapping out of her shock. "I am NOT a brat!"

"If it screams like a brat, and pouts like a brat—"

"Enough!" Zidane interrupted. "Trevor, I don't know what's going on with you, but knock it off. You're being an asshole."

"Whatever you say boss," Kaiten said. He added a bow for added effect.

"_Seriously,_" I said. "_I know you're bored, but this is _my_ reputation you're killing here."_

_Call it payback for keeping me locked up for so long._

"_If you wanted to come out and fight you could have just told me!_"

Kaiten walked over to Vivi and smiled. "Aren't you cute?" he said, smooshing Vivi's hat. "You're like everyone's favorite little brother."

Everyone stared at me, dumbfounded. I practically had an aneurism. "_You're doing this to screw with me, aren't you?"_

_Hell yes._

"_I hate you so much._"

_Don't hate. Exacerbate._

"Let's just go," Zidane said. "Before we catch whatever Trevor caught."

We all started down one way in the path, but Vivi was looking off down the other way.

"Hey, that's not the way to my house!" Eiko turned to say. "That's the way to the Iifa Tree! This way to my place!"

"I was only looking at the mountains," Vivi said.

"The Iifa Tree?" Zidane asked. "I thought it was called Sanctuary."

Eiko shook her head. "Oh, that's what the dwarves call it. Everyone else calls it the Iifa Tree."

Eiko hurried down the path and waved for us to follow her. "Let's go! It's getting dark!"

Sure enough, Eiko's home wasn't that much further. The mountain path opened up to a wide plain. A short half-hour walk lead us to a city.

A ruined city.

Where buildings once stood, rocks now piled up. Where there were gardens were now only dust and dirt. The fountain we could see in the central plaza dried up long ago. There was not a hint of life in this entire desolate place.

And Eiko couldn't seem happier to be back.

Zidane!" she said cheerfully. "This is my home: Madain Sari, the village of summoners!"

The rest of us didn't exactly share Eiko's enthusiasm.

Zidane was the first to find the strength to speak. "The village of the summoners? You live here?" Under his breath, he added, "It's a pile of rubble."

"What happened here?" Dagger wondered. "This place is in ruins."

Before Eiko could explain anything, a series of "Kupo's" came over a pile of rocks to our left. Three moogles stood from the debris and waved at Eiko.

"Mocha! Moco! Chimomo!" Eiko cheered.

Another two moogles came out of a ruined house to our right.

"Momatose! Morrison!" Eiko called to. She looked back and forth for a moment before she realized something was wrong. "Where's Mog?" The moogles present just shuffled their feet and traded looks. "No… Mog got eaten! MOG!"

Fortunately, the smallest moogle out of all of them was alright. She appeared down the beaten road around a corner and gave a hesitant "Kupo". Mog quickly hovered to Eiko's side

"Kup! Kupo… Kupo?"

Despite the young girl's attempt to keep an "angry mother's" face on, Eiko sighed with a smile and said, "No, I'm not mad. But don't ever leave me behind again, okay?"

Mog smiled back, then began hovering next to Eiko obediently. "Kupo! Kupo!"

"Good!" Eiko nodded. She turned back to the rest of us and said, "Zidane! Follow me!"

Eiko dashed into town, stopping down the road at the broken fountain. The rest of us just lingered, walking slowly and, reluctantly, taking the new sights in. The rocks all looked like they were on fire in the sunset.

After passing what used to be several houses, we found Eiko giving orders to the moogles as they gathered around her in a semi-circle.

"Get to work, you guys!" Eiko said.

The moogles all responded obediently. "Kupo! Yes, ma'am." They fluttered in different directions. Mog started to fly off as well, but Eiko stopped her.

"Mog," Eiko said. "You stay here with me."

"Kupo!"

Eiko held her arms out. "Okay, come on!

Mog hopped once, then jumped into the front of Eiko's dress, settling comfortably. Mog was small, so it just looked like Eiko was carrying around a teddy bear.

"Did that moogle just go inside your dress?" Zidane asked.

"Yup!" Eiko said. "Mog always stays with me."

Mog popped her head out long enough to give a quick "Kupo!", then popped back in.

"That's kinda cute," Vivi said.

Eiko ran to the fountain and wiped some dust off of the edge with her sleeve, then sat down on it. She ran to Zidane and grabbed him by the sleeve. "Zidane, come sit over here!" She yanked on him hard, forcing him over to the fountain to sit with her. Zidane tried to protest, but he was already sitting next to the enthusiastic girl before he could.

"Tell me more about yourself!" Eiko insisted. "Tell me!"

"Sure," Zidane said. "I wanna know more about you, too, Eiko."

"Really!"

"For instance, this eidolon, Fenrir—"

But Eiko wasn't interested in talking about herself. "Where are you from? How old are you? What do you do? Where are you going?"

"No, what I wanna know is—"

"What kind of foods do you like? What kind of eidolons do you like? What type of moogles do you like? What type of girls do you like?"

Kaiten sighed. _We're going to be here for a while, aren't we?_

"_Yup,_" I said. "_Might as well get comfy._"

Kaiten found a strip of wall nearby that looked pretty sturdy. He pulled himself up and laid back. "_At least we might be able to learn something from this. The brat's probably the best authority on Eidolons and summoning. After Kuja, that is._"

But it turns out we didn't learn much. Eiko's line of questions blocked any chance we had at learning about the Eidolons, summoning, or anything Kuja had planned. We were merely subjected to a twenty-minute fangirl rant.

"I never met anyone like you before." Eiko said dreamily after the questioning finally stopped.

"Uh, thanks," Zidane said, not entirely sure how to handle the situation. He looked to us for support. Kaiten just shrugged. He wasn't going to be much help. Dagger, however, was blushing. "Dagger? What's wrong? You look dazed."

Dagger just tried to wave it off. "Oh, it's nothing."

"Do you have a fever?" He walked over and pressed his hand against her forehead. She recoiled with a sharp cry.

"You're fine," Zidane decided quickly. "Hey, are you jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?" Dagger said. She folded her arms and turned away slightly.

By now, Eiko was getting anxious. "Are you and Dagger really just friends?" she asked Zidane. "Seems like you guys are…something more."

"Well…" Zidane had to think for a moment. "Yeah, we're more than friends."

Eiko's anxiousness turned to despair. "So? What are you guys?"

"We're a team," Zidane said with a cocky smile.

"A team?"

Kaiten shifted, sitting up and pulling himself off the wall. "And that's just trite enough for me to leave. See you guys later."

Once we were out of sight from the others, I had a small laugh. "_Had enough of the love triangle, did you?_"

_What triangle? It's more like a line with a twig hanging off the end. The brat's hit puberty six years early and has a thing for the monkey, but the monkey likes the princess, but the princess has a crush she won't admit and just wants the brat to shut up._

"_I've noticed something,_" I said. "_You have this thing for never using peoples' names._"

_That's not true. I've talked about my old teammates from Terra. I've used their names before._

"_But why not these teammates? Everyone's always 'the brat', or 'the kid'._"

_It's simple. They haven't earned my respect._

If I could shake my head, dumbstruck, I would have. "_Fine, then tell me this: what am I?_"

Kaiten was silent for a moment. _Stupid?_

"_No dammit! I meant when you talk about me._"

_Yeah, because I have so many people to talk to these days._

"_You can still think to yourself, can't you? What do you call me then?_"

_Oh, you should have said it like that._ Kaiten was silent for another moment. _You're 'the moron'. Or, when I'm feeling impatient, you can also be, 'the dumbass, 'the newbie' or when I'm really pent up, 'dipshit incarnate'._

I was awestruck. "_Good to know I have such high support from you._"

_You're welcome._

"_Seriously, what am I?_"

Kaiten laughed this time. _Oh, am I getting on your nerves?_

"_Kaiten!_"

_Fine. You're 'the host'._

"_The host?_" I supposed it wasn't as bad as any of the others he came up with. "_So even I haven't earned your respect?_"

_Nope._

By now, our wandering had brought us to a stretch of wall overlooking the ocean. The sunset's reflection in the waves danced like a theatre performance. It was almost mystical.

"_Can I have my body back now?_"

_Fine. I'm bored with it anyway._

I could sense my extremities coming back to me. Slowly, the feeling came back into my hands and legs as I regained control.

"_Just remember to let me out more often. Otherwise I'm going to wreak even more havoc next time._"

_Sure thing._ Then to myself, I added, _bastard psychopath_.

I sighed, flexing my arms a little. I was glad to be able to move again. If this was what Kaiten had to deal with, then maybe I should let him out more often. Besides, at least he didn't start carving up Zidane or the others.

I was broken out of my thoughts when Eiko jogged up from behind me. Perhaps now I could repair some of the damage that Kaiten had caused.

"Eiko!" I called out. She stopped jogging and looked at me irately. "I'm sorry about earlier," I said. "I kinda lost control of myself for a while. Battle fatigue, you know?"

"Yeah, whatever," she brushed off. She started walking again.

"How about we start over?" I suggested. "We could probably get along pretty well."

"I'll think about it."

This wasn't working. Time for the desperate move.

"I'll put in a good word for you with Zidane. How's that sound?"

Eiko stopped in her tracks and faced me. "You could do that?"

"Sure," I said, highly doubting that it would do anything. "We've been traveling for about a month together. He'll listen to me." _Assuming Kaiten didn't damage my reputation too badly, that is._

"Yeah, okay," Eiko said. "I'll think about it." I could tell this time that she meant it.

"Anyway, I need to make dinner," Eiko said. "It shouldn't be too long, so don't go far."

"Alright, thanks," I said.

Eiko ran down the street and into the last house resting next to a waterfall. I was interested in finding out if she was going to screw up dinner or not. I hoped she wouldn't. I hadn't been getting enough decent meals lately. It was like college all over again.

Still, I had some time to kill before the food was ready. Maybe I could check out the Eidolon Wall on the other side of town. I might actually learn something. More so, it would be pretty cool to see. Something like that would be considered a lost artifact in any museum on Earth.

The Eidolon Wall rose high above the other buildings. How it managed to avoid total destruction was beyond me. It was a circular tower, probably three stories tall. There was only a single entrance, guarded by one of the moogles. He was standing off to one side, so my guess was that Zidane and Dagger had already been invited in.

"The Eidolon Wall is a collection of paintings," one of the moogles announced, guiding Zidane and Dagger inside. I think his name was Morrison. "The summoner tribe painted all their eidolons they found during their research."

I stood in the doorway in awe. There was a large incense pile as big as a bonfire smoking lightly in the center of the room. The paintings were all colored rocks set into the wall. They rose high, some stretching all the way to the top of the tower. Ramuh, Ifrit, Atomos, Carbunkle… Every Eidolon that existed was here, all detailed in beautiful coordination. It must have taken years to build, even with an entire village working on it.

"These eidolons all exist?" Dagger asked.

Morrison nodded. "Kupo. This is a holy place for the summoner tribe. Lady Eiko comes here everyday to pray and burn incense for her ancestors."

Dagger stood underneath the paintings and looked up. "There's Atomos. That's Bahamut. What's this one…?"

"Leviathan," I said, walking in. "I think. The color's faded so it's hard to tell."

Dagger jumped as she heard me. "Oh, Trevor. I didn't know you were here. How did you know that?"

"Mythology and ancient religion class." I strode in, turning slowly to look at every painting in the circular room.

Dagger put on a sad smile. "It's hard to believe that I had some of these locked away inside of me." Her knees buckled for a moment before she sat down.

"What's wrong, Dagger?" Zidane asked.

Dagger clutched her chest, holding a fist by her heart. "I…"

Zidane reached down and put a hand on her shoulder. "You'll get it back."

"…I want to look at the murals some more."

Zidane nodded, disappointed that he couldn't do more to help her. "Okay. I'm going to go see if Eiko's ready for us. I'll be back."

Dagger nodded. Zidane cupped a hand on my shoulder briefly as he passed me to leave. When he was gone, Dagger stood and stood underneath the Atomos mural.

Atomos. I didn't know if I would ever forgive it. He destroyed Lindblum, killing thousands. I knew that he wasn't the one in control, but it still didn't sit well with me.

"Did you want me to leave too?" I asked.

"If you don't mind," she said with a small voice. "I think I need to be alone."

"…Sure." I turned and left the building, giving her one last look as I reached the doorway.

I walked along in silence for a few minutes. I'd have preferred to stick around and help Dagger sort herself out. She was probably feeling very violated because of having her Eidolons stolen. Still, sometimes the best thing to do was to let people sort their problems out on their own.

Zidane was sitting next to the fountain. He seemed as bothered as I did.

"Hey dude," I said.

"Hey," he said back.

I sat down net to him. It was surprising how clean the area was. I guess the moogles didn't have anything better to do.

"So, what was up with you before in the mountain path?" Zidane asked. "You've never been like that."

"Ah, sorry," I said. I did regret letting Kaiten coming out and acting like that, but hopefully he'd calm down in the future. "I guess battle fatigue is getting to me."

"I don't know," Zidane said. "It sounded like more than that. Are you sure you're not hiding anything?"

"Well…" This was it. Should I open up to Zidane, tell him everything? Kaiten probably wouldn't like it, and it would open a slew of questions too complicated to explain. "I used to get picked on a lot when I was a kid. I guess being able to stand up and give some of the crap I've been dealt back gets me ahead of myself."

Zidane stared at me for a second, judging my excuse. At least it wasn't a complete lie.

"Yeah, alright," Zidane finally said. "Just try to tone it down next time, alright?"

"Yeah, of course." Maybe I should draw up a written contract with Kaiten for that.

As we sat, one of the moogles came hovering over to us. He floated for a moment before speaking.

"Lady Eiko says dinner is ready, Kupo!" the moogle said.

"Great, I'm starving," Zidane said.

XXXXXXXX

I always had fun with the kitchen scene in the game. Make dinner a success or spike the potatoes with an oglop. Either way, I was too busy eating to really listen to the others talking.

Much to my surprise, Eiko had done a great job cooking. The small dining room was all ready for us when we arrived. Six places were set, each with fancy silverware, fine plates and a nice helping of potatoes. A salad and a fish that looked like a giant pink salmon were in the middle.

"Wow!" Zidane said as we all piled into the room. "This looks great!"

"Kupopopo!" Mog cheered happily.

"Welcome, Zidane!" Eiko said, coming in from the kitchen door. "Have a seat."

"You made a lot!" Dagger pointed out. "I haven't seen this much food in half a month!"

Zidane stepped to the table quickly and sat down. "Let's eat!"

I took a seat as well, reaching for the salad first. I couldn't remember the last time I had a home cooked meal. Everything I've had to eat in Gaia was either assembled while traveling or from a restaurant. Even before that, it had been months in college since I had eaten anything that wasn't warmed under a heat lamp.

Zidane was the first to compliment Eiko. "Wow, these potatoes taste amazing!" he said. "You should start a restaurant. The fish is just right."

"And this salad is fresh," Dagger added. "I haven't had one this good since I was at the castle."

"Where did you get the fish?" Vivi asked.

"There's a river just behind my house," Eiko explained. "Mocha knows exactly how to get them. He's the best fisherman in the village."

She really had a talent for cooking. The few times I tried fish at home it usually turned out pretty well, but my father always complained about how hard it was to make. If Eiko could actually make fish taste this good, then I was impressed.

Or maybe Quina snuck into the village and helped her, like in the game.

"Hey, Eiko, where are all the other summoners?" Zidane asked. "Are they hiding underground or something?"

"Underground?" Eiko repeated. "Yeah. They're all underground, sleeping the eternal sleep."

"What?"

"I'm the last survivor of my tribe. I've been living with moogles ever since my grandpa died last year."

There was a small, awkward pause. No one seemed to know just what to say.

"I'm sorry…" Dagger finally managed to say.

Eiko just smiled. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm really happy here."

Some of the moogles that had wandered into the room gave a happy "Kupo!".

Eiko took a bite of the fish and explained her story. "Ten years ago, which is four years before I was born… A natural disaster struck the village. Even the survivors suffered a great deal. But my mom and dad fell in love and had a family. Not that I remember what they look like, because they died when I was very young."

"I see…" Zidane said, putting down his fork. He seemed to lose his appetite.

"I'm like a beautiful young heroine in turmoil, don't you think?"

Zidane raised an eyebrow at Eiko. He wasn't the only one confused. Dagger and Vivi didn't know what she was talking about either. I just took a bite of the potatoes and tried to ignore it. It had an odd texture though, like some of the potato didn't cook. It was kinda crunchy.

"You know why I'm here in this village?" Eiko continued.

_What a minute… Potatoes aren't crunchy…_

"It was to meet you, Zidane, my beautiful—"

"Oh god!" I quickly spat the "potato" back onto my plate.

"What is it? Don't interrupt me!" Eiko shouted angrily.

I looked down and saw half of a giant beetle sticking out of the spat pile of potato. I really, really hoped that I hadn't swallowed the other half.

"I'm sorry," I said, speaking slowly to regain my composure. "But there was an oglop in my food."

"Don't you know?" Eiko said. "Oglops are a Conde Petie delicacy."

The evil grin she gave me told me it was intentional. She hadn't forgiven me for Kaiten's comments earlier.

The rest of this adventure was going to be a very long, very tiring trek.

XXXXXXXX

Okay, so that bit with Kaiten fighting Eiko? That was for the people who wanted me to have Quina eat her instead. Now because of your requests, Trevor's never going to be able to explain this away to the others, so Eiko will want him dead for the rest of the series! :D And although I _could_ just write another ATE to correct everything, I'd rather not because I'm so very lazy. ^^

And another note: I had been planning on having more moments with Kaiten, but for the sake of building him in "relationships" with other characters, I decided to bring him out more. Besides, he seems to be the most popular character in the series sometimes. XD

Oh, and I know I say this a lot, but keep an eye out for next month's chapter since it'll be so amazing. It'll be the biggest plot twist to date. XDXDXD

Chapter 21- The Dream Revealed.


	21. The Dream Revealed

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: I came across a fun little SI the other day, already with a good amount of story, but not enough reviews. So sad when that happens, isn't it? The story is "Afterlife Tales: Separated" by Butcherthegirl. It's fun because his character uses a bow, my second favorite weapon right after swords. ^^ There's good detail to be found and interesting character work. Go check it out after this chapter. :D

A long while ago, I decided to thread a series of disturbing dreams Trevor started having after Kaiten "joined" him. Something about their link made Trevor become unstable to the point where he started having these twisted nightmares. Each time he had a dream, he found something new going on. Each dream gave him a different hint about what it all meant.

Did you put the clues together? Do you know what's really going on?

Now Trevor will finally find out what that dream means.

Now's the time to put the clues together and find out what the hell's really going on…

Be forewarned, this chapter is very dark. I should have probably rated it 'M', but I think you guys can handle it.

Chapter 20- The Dream Revealed.

XXXXXXXX

This time, the field was on fire.

"God dammit…" I muttered. "Not this shit again."

The green house was coated in fire. The field was soaked in blood, most of it burning as well. And there I was, right in the middle of it all.

"This had better not start happening every time I go to sleep."

I started walking forward, towards the house. Maybe there was something inside that could tell me what was happening. I had never been able to reach it before.

The blood on the ground didn't hinder me this time. The fire didn't hurt. It seemed to cleanse the field somehow.

Something about this dream seemed way too real this time.

As I neared the front door, I felt a deep sense of dread. There was something inside this house that I shouldn't see. It was like the house was the source of the fire and the blood.

Slowly, I opened the door and walked inside.

The house was dark. I could barely see anything. There was only one bit of light at all, coming from the right. I looked over and saw a kitchen.

Inside the kitchen though…

XXXXXXXX

I woke up in a sweat.

Eiko had given us some of our own buildings to sleep in for the night. There was little light outside. The sun was just coming over the horizon. I flopped back into bed, trying to gather my thoughts.

"Ugh… damn…" _How many more times is this going to happen? What the hell was that?_

I pulled the blanket over my head to stay warm. If I was lucky, I could still get another hour of sleep or two. I was still thinking about the dream as I drifted off.

_Was that Kaiten's memory?_

XXXXXXXX

When we finally did mobilize later that morning, it was with some confliction. Eiko really wanted to come with us, but Dagger was feeling a little jealous for Zidane's attention. It was a beautiful morning, so I decided to enjoy it while I could. One of the moogles had offered me an apple for breakfast. It wasn't much, but I was still full from dinner the previous night, despite the oglop in the potatoes.

It turns out that we were going to really need Eiko. She had told us that the Iifa Tree was sealed with an Eidolon in order to contain another Eidolon. I didn't really understand it, so I just smiled and nodded.

It was almost unsettling though, watching Dagger try to avoid Zidane. She trailed back while he took the lead down the old Mountain Path.

I decided to hang back with her.

"You doing alright?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine," she said.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye. "You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Really, I'm fine!" she said. "What could possibly be wrong?"

"She's only six you know. I'm sure Zidane's interests are held elsewhere."

Dagger blushed. "What does that mean?"

"Isn't that why you're upset?"

Dagger scoffed. "I'm a princess. It would never work between us, so it doesn't matter."

"But you're royalty. You can change the rules."

"You just don't understand!" Dagger said loudly. She stomped off ahead of me.

_Great. Now I have two girls mad at me._

XXXXXXXX

We were at the Iifa Tree before noon.

It was even more impressive the closer we got to it. The entire area, hundreds and hundreds of acres around us, were devoted to this one tree. Roots broke the surface every so often, getting larger as we got closer to the source. Tens of thousands of roots made up the entire structure. It was far more bewildering to see in real life than in the game.

The ground was dry and dusty. The only green around was either in the treetops or on the ground as gargant grass.

The most interesting thing though was the make up of the tree. It wasn't one solid trunk, but instead, the roots came together underneath it and shot up, creating a makeshift trunk. The tangled mess climbed hundreds of feet in the air. I didn't want to even fathom being that high up on top of the tree.

More importantly—

"There's mist here!" Dagger said. We could see mist hanging in the grooves between roots. It was almost disturbing seeing it again after having such clear ground for the last few days.

"So, what, is this place the source of the mist?" Zidane asked. "It's coming out of the roots."

Vivi seemed the most troubled by all this. He was distracted and didn't see a rock in front of him until he tripped over it.

"You okay?" Eiko asked.

"I-I'm fine," Vivi said.

I gave Vivi a hand up. He just kept looking at the mist all around us.

We started to move forward again when suddenly there was a dull thud, like someone hitting a car roof with a hammer. Zidane stumbled back a step, repelled by the invisible wall.

"Whoa!" he cried out. "What was that?"

"That was the seal," Eiko explained. "It shouldn't hurt you, but are you alright?"

"Yeah, it didn't hurt."

Zidane stepped closer and reached his hand out. He tapped the seal, causing it to ring out again.

"Wait, let me try something," I said. Zidane moved back and I took his spot.

I quickly rapped against the seal, giving my best rendition of Beethoven's 5th.

"You're back to normal," Zidane joked. He pushed me away to get me to stop.

Zidane looked down at the little summoner. "Eiko, did you say they used the power of an eidolon to seal this place? How do you break it?"

"I'm going to ask the eidolon to come back," Eiko said. She pointed to her horn. "The commoner's horn allows us to communicate with eidolons and wild animals. I'll break the seal now. Watch!"

Eiko stood on a small boulder nearby and raised her arms up and swung her hands in small loops.

"Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom! By the light of our spirits! I call upon thee! Answer my call! Wherever your soul may be!"

There were a few seconds. Just as I began wondering if the spell worked, there was a loud crack. The seal resonated several times, ringing in a staccato, until it stopped at once. The only thing we heard was the wind and a ruby falling to the ground. Eiko picked up the ruby, containing the Eidolon that had been guarding the seal, and put it in her pocket.

"Finished!" she said. "We can go inside now."

"Good job," Zidane said.

"Was that the spell to break the seal?" Vivi asked.

"Nope," Eiko said. "All I do is focus my thoughts into my horn."

"Then why were you—?"

"That was just for show! The spell is actually much longer, but the eidolon asked me to hurry it up."

"Well… that was odd," I said, mostly to myself.

Zidane took the lead again. "Alright. Let's go!" He started us down a large root towards the tree. We all followed, walking in single file.

I walked at the end as the rear guard, but mostly because I wanted to talk to Vivi. He kept looking over the edges into the pits of mist trapped between the roots.

"Busy thinking?" I asked him.

"Huh? Uh, yeah…" he said. "I just keep thinking about Kuja and how I was made…"

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"No, I'm fine. I just… I don't know. Something about this seems dangerous."

"Well, it involves Kuja, so it's bound to be dangerous. Just stick with me and we'll be fine."

"Yeah, alright."

It was another hour of walking along the roots before we got anywhere. We finally had shade from the warm sun after the roots converged. When we got closer, I noticed that the leaves I had seen growing at the top of the tree weren't leaves but rather enormous green vines. Each one looked as thick as a regular tree.

This place was freaking me out.

We had to pass through a small cloud of mist for a while. It was thickest as we neared the center of the roots. I wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be like inside this thing, but I reminded myself to stay on guard and not let the mist overtake me.

After a while, we reached an alcove at the trunk. The root we walked on flattened out into a large, round platform. There were carvings in the ground, all circling around the middle.

At the very middle of the platform, there was an indentation. There was a triangle inside a circle with another circle inside it.

"What's this?" Zidane asked. "Looks old. I wonder who built it?"

Zidane ran about the platform, examining every inch of it. The rest of us filed out, around the platform. I sat down near the middle, just next to the indentation. The long walk took a toll on my legs and I needed the break.

"This way!" Eiko yelled to Vivi, who was slowly making his way to us. "Hey, are you alright?"

"A-Aren't you guys scared of heights?" he asked.

"Gosh, you look so helpless. Why don't you stay here and let us handle the rest?"

"No, I'm going with you guys! I have to!"

"Then don't leave my side, okay?"

"O-Okay. Thanks."

"That's pretty nice of you Eiko," I said

"Well, it's better if he's with someone sweet and caring. Not a total jerk like you."

"Guys!" Zidane interrupted. He quickly changed the subject, "Eiko, do you know anything about this place?"

"Nope," she said. "This is my first time inside the Iifa Tree."

"This place looks ancient."

Zidane sat down next to me by the indentation. He tapped the triangle once. A second later, the whole circle glowed for an instant.

"What the…" Zidane reached out and tapped it again. It glowed a second time.

"Alright, then!" Zidane said. "Stand back. I'm going to try something."

"Zidane," Dagger said, concerned.

"I'll be fine," he said with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry!"

Zidane took a step and jumped onto the indentation. No sooner had he landed before it glowed and shook. Some dust cracked loose and the entire center of the platform began to quickly lower into a deep hole.

Rather than find out what was at the bottom, Zidane leapt. He stretched his hand out, reaching for the lip of the platform, but he was too short. He wasn't going to make it.

"Trevor!"

I reached in and grabbed his hand just in time. "Gotcha." He held on tight until the small elevator started to rise again. He let go of me and used it as a step and jumped back outside of the indentation with the rest of us. The elevator just came back to rest where is had started.

"So, we know it works," he said. "I'm gonna see where it takes me. I'll call you guys over if everything is alright."

"Not alone you're not," I objected.

"I'm coming with you!" Eiko agreed.

"Me, too," said Dagger

"M-Me, too," Vivi nodded nervously.

Zidane looked at us, then at the elevator. "Okay, we'll all go."

We all got on the elevator quickly. There was barely enough room and I worried about getting scratched by the exposed walls as we moved down.

Fortunately, the ride didn't last long. After about thirty feet, the elevator reached an open room. The complex root system that we saw outside continued down here. It was dark, but several of the roots glowed. Our path took us down another large root. It spiraled and twisted, taking us deeper inside the giant tree.

"I would have killed for a tree house like this when I was a kid," I said.

"That would be nice," Zidane said. "All I got was running around in other people's attics when I was robbing them."

Eiko spoke up. "What's a tree house?"

We forced small talk for another few minutes. We were lucky the root we walked on was dry. Slipping at any time would mean one of us falling for a few hundred feet. However, some of the roots also started to look old and decayed. It was weird to see something like that in a tree with a well of life within it.

We eventually reached the bottom, or as close to it as we could see. The roots came together to make another platform big enough for us to stand on comfortably. Or, as comfortable as we could be inside this creepy tree. On the far side of us was another, bigger root standing vertically. A thorny vine was wrapped around it and descended deeper into a hole. There was a bright green light coming out of the hole.

"Everything up there looks withered," Zidane said. "This place looks totally different." He glanced down the sheer sides and into the hole. "It's so bright I can't see the bottom."

I looked down as well. I could only see the descending root for about two hundred feet. After that, the light obstructed the view too much to see anything. We were probably below sea level already. The structure of this place was much more vast than the game made it seem.

"I guess we should try to get to the bottom of this!" Zidane said.

I rolled my eyes. "If that's your idea of a pun, I'm pushing you over the side here."

"Hey, Zidane," Eiko said. "I found something here."

She pointed at a leaf-shaped stage next to us. It was big, more than enough room to seat all of us. It was connected to the thorny vine wrapped around the root.

"Hmm." Zidane stepped closer to examine it. "Maybe it'll move like the last one."

"It didn't move when I got on," Eiko said.

"You got on it!"

Eiko brushed off Zidane's concern like it was nothing. "Why don't we all try getting on?"

We all stepped on the leaf. Once we were all on, it glowed briefly

"I felt it respond," Zidane said. "I guess we're in luck!"

The leaf started to lift until it was perpendicular to the vine. It started spinning down into the green light. Fortunately, a green mist encircled us, blocking the wind and making it so we couldn't fall off.

There was ample space, unlike the elevator before. I decided to lay down and get some rest for the upcoming battle. I laid back and enjoyed the gentle rocking motion of the leaf. It was very soothing.

"You look comfy," Zidane joked. "How can you relax in a place like this?"

"Comfort is relative," I told him. "It comes from falling asleep at my desk in class and in my room."

I kept my eyes mostly shut, but I watched the others out of the corner of my eye.

Zidane tried to sit as well, but he didn't seem to take to it as well as I could. "You okay, Dagger?" he asked.

The princess clasped her hands together tightly as she watched the passing walls. "Yes… I wonder where we're going?"

"Maybe Mog can tell us something!" Eiko said.

The moogle leapt out of Eiko's dress. No sooner was she out when she started looking around, amazed at everything around us all.

"What do you feel Mog?" Eiko asked.

"Kupo…" Mog looked around slowly, but quickly came back with a panicked reply. "Kupo? KUPO! POPO!"

"Really?" Eiko asked.

"Kupo!"

"Alright… Thanks."

"Kupopo!"

Mog huddled against Eiko for a moment, then leapt back into her dress.

"So what's up?" I asked, still laying down.

"Um, Mog senses a lot of life beneath us," Eiko explained. "Moogles are faeries, so they sense life everywhere, but Mog says there's a whole lot here!"

Dagger looked down, but the light was blocked our view of the bottom. "I wonder if Kuja's agents are down there."

"But I don't get it," Zidane said. "What's the connection between Kuja and the mist?"

"You said there was mist on your continent, right?" Eiko asked. "If the mist comes from this tree, how come it only appears on Zidane's continent?"

"I guess there has to be something that channels the mist."

"Yes," Dagger agreed. "But the question is, why?"

My head turned back and I saw Vivi. He was leering down at the light, completely lost in thought.

"Hey, Vivi!" I called out. "What's wrong? You've been pretty quiet so far."

"Oh, I've just been thinking," he said. "About the mist. Do you remember the… factory we saw in Dali?"

"Yes," Dagger said. "The factory where black mages were being made?"

"Huh?" Eiko said. "Black mages?"

"They look a lot like Vivi."

"Dagger!" Zidane said.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she quickly responded. "I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay," Vivi said. "I'm not upset anymore… about being made and everything."

"Vivi…"

"Anyway," Vivi continued. "That factory had a lot of mist inside, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Zidane remembered. "There was a huge machine filled with mist."

"That's right," Dagger added. "And there were those strange eggs we saw."

Vivi nodded. "There's gotta be a connection between the mist, Kuja, and… the black mages."

Eiko shook her head. "I'm so confused."

We sat in silence, pondering. The others tried to make the connection between the mist, Kuja and the Black Mages. I wondered about how badly they would take it when they found out what that connection was.

"Hey, I can finally see the bottom."

Zidane was the first to see the end of the leaf's track. The leaf slowed down and came to a halt. We stepped off on another platform. There were stairs leading to a larger platform below us.

"It's so deep!" Eiko said.

Below us, there was still about a hundred-foot drop into a weird, green pool of water. There were several strings connecting the bottom platform to the water, making it look like we were standing on a giant harp. Whoever designed this place was obviously weird.

Eiko was all too excited to see more of it. "Come with me!" she said, grabbing Vivi and pulling him down to the bottom platform. When he hesitated, she said, "Are you gonna make a helpless little girl like me go all by herself!"

"Wait!" Zidane said. "There might be some monsters lurking there!"

That didn't stop them. The kids ran down anyway.

"Hey, guys," Dagger said. "Mog said he sensed life down here. Do you sense anything?"

I nodded. I could feel this strange pull on my body down below. It was like it was trying to grab my brain and pull it down through the floor. It was probably an effect the water had on our souls. A "No Swimming" sign would have been a good idea for here.

"Yeah, but you sense it, too?" Zidane said. "We don't even need Mog to tell us there's life down here."

"There's something here," I said. I walked down to the bottom, getting lost in thought.

The water probably had something to do with the soul-transfer process between Gaia and Terra. If that was true, then falling in would be fatal. We'd get our soul sucked out of us and our bodies would become useless husks. But what would happen to me, with two souls?

_Kaiten, are you doing alright?_

There was a pause before he answered. "_Not really,_" he said wearily. "_This place is unsettling._"

_No adverse effects though, right?_

"_You mean am I going to throw up inside your head? No. But something about this isn't right._"

_How so? Aside from the obvious._

"_The enemy we're about to fight is named Soulcage, right?"_

_Yeah. Know something about it?_

"_I didn't look into it that much since Terra never had to use it often, but there was an Operation: Soulcage held as a backup plan._"

_A backup plan to what?_

"_The absorption of other planets…_"

Kaiten's answer wasn't exactly what I had hoped for, but it did confirm something I had suspected for a long time.

This story line was much more elaborate than I had thought.

"So much for Kuja," Zidane said after a minute. We had all inspected the area, but there was nothing around us, save for the water below. "None of his lackeys are here, either. Or maybe we have to go down there into the water? I definitely sense something down there."

"Nooo, no, no, no," I said. "Bad idea. There's no way back up."

"Well what else is there? If nothing's here, then we wasted a trip."

"Zidane!" Eiko suddenly shouted.

"What's up?"

"M-Mog's saying… Something coming from above!"

"From above!" He looked up at Dagger. "Dagger, come here! Now!"

Dagger was still on the platform above us. She ran to the stairs, but a shockwave hit us, making everything rumble. She fell at the top of the stairs, just barely stopping herself from falling down them.

"Dagger!" Zidane rushed up to save her.

"Come on guys," I said, looking at the kids. I stood in front of them and drew my short swords. Most of the platform was flat and even, which we'd need if we were going to fight.

"Stay behind me," I instructed.

"Why?" Eiko said. I would be very glad when she stopping being so defiant.

"Because I have better armor and can take more hits." Then I quickly added, "If we're going to get into a fight, I mean."

"Look!" Eiko said, pointing. "The wall is moving!"

Sure enough, the walls beyond the platform were rippling and constricting, almost like the tree was breathing.

"You're right," Vivi agreed. "It's like it's alive!"

Just then, Zidane and Dagger finally ran up to us. "Are you guys alright?"

"Zidane!" Eiko said. "The wall's shaking faster!"

I looked up and saw something big coming towards us, fast.

"Heads up!"

The thing passed us by, just barely missing and latching onto the edge right in front of us. We could see small tree roots bonding with the floor and becoming one. They groaned softly as the rest of the mass turned upward to face us.

It looked like a small tree, only about twenty feet tall, with a thin body and bushy leaves, but at the top, the branches and leaves split in half, revealing a demonic head with long, splintery horns. Soulcage. It squinted its eyes at us.

**So… it wasn't Kuja.**

Although the only noise the monster tree made was a low, hollow breathing sound, it was able to speak directly into our minds. I had been doing the same thing with Kaiten all along, but this presence was bigger, much heavier. It seemed to crush my soul, almost making me fall to my knees.

The others were confused, but didn't seem to have the same problem. They stood just fine.

"Huh? What's going on?" Vivi asked. "I can hear a voice inside my head!"

"You just said Kuja!" Zidane yelled. "Where is he!"

**I do not know.**

"What are you doing here!" Dagger asked.

"Are you the one who makes the mist!" Zidane asked.

**It is not produced… Mist is a by-product of the refining process. It is discharged through the roots.**

Dagger quickly figured out what Soulcage meant. "So it's sent to other continents through the roots, right?"

"But why!" Zidane asked. "Why would you do that!"

**I contaminate the other continents with mist to stimulate the fighting instinct. This, in turn, leads to war among the leaders of nations, and then to the fall of civilization. Kuja merely puts the by-product to a different use.**

"A different use!" Vivi asked, horrified. He seemed to understand what Soulcage implied. "What is Kuja trying to do!"

**I cannot lie. Kuja used the waste product to make weapons. Weapons… like yourself.**

Soulcage's mental prowess was considerable, but maybe I only felt this way because I had two souls within me. I did my best to stay focused, but my vision was starting to blur.

"He's really ticking me off!" Eiko blurted out. "Can I kill him?"

"Wait, Eiko!" Zidane said. "What kind of weapons did Kuja make?"

**Kuja called them black mages, dark spawn of the mist.**

"So the factory in Dali was really…"

Soulcage looked down at Vivi, mockingly.

**Defeat me, and no more mist will flow. And then no more weapons like this puppet will be made. Answer me, puppet. Do you deny your very birth?**

"Sonofabitch," I muttered.

"No more!" Vivi yelled. "I won't let you make any more instruments of murder!"

"Way to go, Vivi!" Eiko cheered. "I know it must be hard for you. We can knock off this rat now, right?"

"Alright, let's bust him up!" Zidane said. "Who knows, it might even lure Kuja here!"

**I have seen the end of my thousand-year life, and it is not now. You cannot stop me. It is futile to even try.**

Soulcage reared back and let out a hollow roar. I could literally feel my eyes shake. They twitched nervously, like someone was holding a sharp pencil right in front of them. I could barely see straight, but I could still see Soulcage's thin body ahead of me.

I readied my short swords and charged.

Zidane dashed at the same time I did. We ran in parallel, approaching different sides of the tree. I wouldn't be able to use Crimson or Azure's abilities here since fire would let Soulcage use its strongest attack, but I could still use Explosion. That would take a good chunk out of him.

As we neared him though, Soulcage snapped some branches from his head and swung at us. They were big and with my blurry vision, I wasn't able to dodge in time. He smacked me and sent me flying backwards.

I felt myself crash into something soft. I struggled to get up and saw Vivi underneath me.

"Sorry Vivi," I said. My legs buckled and I fell to one knee.

"Are you alright?" Dagger asked.

"It's my head," I explained. "I can't see right."

I fell again as a headache washed over me.

To my embarrassment, Zidane wasn't having nearly as much trouble as I was. He was already attacking Soulcage again, deflecting branches and twigs. He was doing a good job until the tree cast Fira on him. Zidane ignited in a column of flame. Soulcage took the change to knock Zidane back.

"Zidane!" Eiko cried out. She played a quick tune on her flute. A white light flashed over the thief. He healed quickly and got up. He seemed alright.

"This isn't working," he said. "We need to do something else! Eiko, can you use your summon magic?"

"Not here!" she said. "There isn't enough room for Fenrir. He'd crush us!"

"I think I can!" Dagger said. She pulled out the peridot and held it tightly. "Buy me some time. I'm not sure how this works."

"Just call to it!" Eiko said.

"Trevor, give me a hand here!" Zidane said. He rushed Soulcage again, but charged something up. When he closed in, he unleashed a magic blast. Thick tendrils sprouted from his blade and struck the tree.

Soulcage let out another hollow breath. It thrashed about momentarily, but came back with a dark cloud over its eyes.

Zidane had blinded it.

"Trevor, come on!" he yelled. He ran in and was finally able to cut into the thick bark.

My legs still didn't want to work right and my sight was getting worse, but I could still see my target. I dragged myself awkwardly in and managed to cut Soulcage's armor as well.

_Kaiten!_ I yelled in my head. _I need a hand concentrating! Take over!_

"_I can't!"_ he said.

_What do you mean you can't?_

"_I've been trying to take over the whole fight! This guy is doing something to us!_"

The mental dominance Soulcage was showing over us was too debilitating. Without Kaiten, I couldn't concentrate. Without concentration, I couldn't use my Chi. The best I could do now was carve away only some of the bark.

But that didn't seem to faze Soulcage.

**Foolish. I don't need to see you to attack you.**

Soulcage started to glow a bright white. The light started as a wide sphere around him, but condensed into a small dot at its core. There was a small rumbling at first as the power rapidly expanded within the tree. It soon exploded. The light expanded, covering everything near the tree and blasting Zidane and myself away. I felt myself crash into the staircase. It didn't help my muddled head. I glanced up and saw that the dark clouds had worn off, giving the tree its vision back.

But things weren't all bad.

"I got it!" Dagger yelled excitedly. She clasped the green jewel next to her staff and chanted. "Oh Ramuh, God of Thunder. Descend from the heavens to judge my enemy! Judgment Bolt!"

A spark from the peridot flashed upwards, stopping abruptly fifty feet above us. Clouds emerged from the spark, thundering heavily. The covered the tunnel above us, coating everything. And then they split open.

An old man with a flowing beard that reached his feet stood on the cloud. Ramuh held a large staff, capped with a crescent moon. He looked down at us and nodded in introduction to Dagger. He turned to Soulcage and pulled his arm back, then launched his staff. It pierced the tree like he was paper.

"Cover your eyes!" Eiko said. She ducked and covered her head with both her arms.

I shielded myself with my arm, but I tried to watch some of the attack.

Lightning covered the tip of the staff. Rings of lightning burst out, slicing into Soulcage. Twelve rings cut into the tree, causing it to roar in pain. Then, as soon as he had come, Ramuh pulled back his staff and vanished. The clouds dissipated and we were left with a fighting chance.

"Good job," Zidane said. "He's hurt. Keep hitting it!"

"I have an idea!" Eiko said. "Give me some time too!"

Eiko was probably going to use the ruby she found earlier to summon Carbuncle. That was good. We could use the defense.

I stood again and kept my balance this time. Maybe Soulcage's influence was waning because of Ramuh's attack. I had to take the opportunity to strike before it could recuperate.

I ran passed our casters and powered up my blades. Rounded energy tipped them while I held both swords on one side of myself.

"Zidane, move!" I called.

He backed off just in time. Soulcage swung a branch at me, but I blocked it with one Explosion, blowing a hole in its defense. I leaned in and swung Azure, slashing at the trunk. The Explosion cut deep, detonating at the middle of the attack and destroying the tree's armor. It howled in pain again, so I dug Crimson home, scraping some of Soulcage's insides as much as I could.

The tree reeled in agony and managed to bat me away again. I rolled a few times, but it didn't matter. The damage was done and Eiko was almost done summoning some shields for us.

I looked over, but what I saw alarmed me. Apparently, she had to hold a stone while she was summoning something, but she didn't have one on her.

She was holding an orange feather.

"Now Vivi!" she said.

I saw Vivi also casting something. Eiko's plan dawned on me, and it couldn't have been a worse one.

"No!" I screamed. "Don't use fire!"

But it was too late. Vivi cast a Fira at Soulcage's roots. The flames burned at the wood momentarily. The tree roared briefly, but calmed after a few seconds. The fire wasn't very effective.

Meanwhile, Eiko threw the phoenix pinion into the air. It exploded, surrounding the air with fire. The spell Vivi just cast was nothing in comparison.

The Phoenix emerged from the fire. The bird was a beautiful mix of yellow, red, green and purple feathers. It had a long, red tail and a powerful call. It cast several sparkling lights over Soulcage. When they landed, the lights exploded, bursting into flame, adding to Vivi's attack. Soulcage was soon consumed by the burning wall all around it. The phoenix turned to ash and disappeared among the blaze.

"Don't use fire?" Eiko chided. "I think I know what I'm doing."

I just shook my head slowly. "I just hope you killed it."

The attack, of course, did not.

**The fire has started.**

"What was that?" Dagger asked.

"We're in trouble," I said. "Get to cover!"

But we didn't have enough time. The flames rose to Soulcage's leaves. Its branches spread out and the fire held its place. The fire no longer burned him. Now, Soulcage had a new weapon.

The leaves shot forward, aimed at each of us. Hundreds of flaming leaves came forth, engulfing everything on the platform. There was nowhere to hide.

I felt the immense heat as I was tagged in the chest. Despite my armor, the leaves were able to cut through like I wasn't wearing anything to begin with. A few more hit me in the arms and stomach. They burned me all over and were horribly painful.

I looked around. The others weren't faring any better than I was. They were hit all over. Zidane took a hit to the neck and fell over, but he was unable to scream. Dagger tried to defend herself with a spell, but wasn't able to get it off in time and was covered like a pincushion. The kids tried to cower to avoid the leaves, but their backs were lanced and burst into flames. We needed Dagger or Eiko to heal us, and quickly. Soulcage was still fairly fit and able to go a few more rounds.

I tried to get up, to arm myself, to do anything, but it was worthless. I fell back, short swords at my sides, unable to even move.

_Kaiten, if you're going to do something, do it now!_

"_I can't,_" he said. "_You have to break him. His mental grasp is too strong._"

_Of all the times…_

**I told you, my death was not now,** Soulcage gloated.** You will all be used to fuel the refining process.**

As the fires subsided, I could see the tree looking over all of us. This wasn't supposed to be happening. If only Eiko hadn't been such an idiot, none of this would have happened!

Soulcage stopped examining the others as he got to me. He creeped me out and I weakly reached for my weapons, but didn't make it in time. The tree brought out several transparent tendrils from behind himself and brought them near me. They looked ethereal, like they were ghosts.

**Hmm… you are an interesting one. Two souls?**

The tendrils landed on my chest and passed through my armor. I could feel the tendrils inside myself, grabbing onto my mind and strengthening the mental prowess he had possessed ever since the fight began.

Soulcgae used his tendrils to lift me up into the air. I couldn't move and couldn't resist. Now, I only had one hope left…

_K…Kai…_

**Curious. Neither of you belong in here.**

My eyes rolled into the back of my head…

XXXXXXXX

Kaiten didn't have much strength, but he was able to muster himself for battle. As soon as he felt the unearthly presence push into his host's body, he stood ready for whatever came his way.

He had been able to conjure his blue plate armor from when he battled Trevor, as well as his two katanas. The white realm that was his home didn't have any defenses or tricks set up like last time, so the Terran hoped he wouldn't need them.

Suddenly, he could see the encroaching tendrils in the distance. He readied himself and attacked.

The tendrils were each as wide as Kaiten was tall, and they outnumbered him twenty to one, but that wasn't going to stop him. If anything happened to Trevor, both of them would die. Soulcage was probably more than happy to find two souls in a single body.

Kaiten attacked first, slashing deep into one tendril. The tip fell off and disintegrated on the floor. He spun, cutting another three tendrils. So far, things were going well.

As experienced as Kaiten was in battle though, he had never been in a situation like this. A tendril finally found his blind spot and smacked him aside. Soon another tendril slapped him down to the floor.

But that didn't stop the prideful lieutenant. He flew above the tendrils and charged up his katanas.

"Lets see you stop this," he said. "Arc Storm!"

Kaiten swung his blades quickly and precisely over a hundred times. Each swing let out a small sliver of energy, but each sliver was incredibly powerful. They each hit a tendril and exploded. The ghostly appendages shook from the attack, but were not repelled. One came up to ambush Kaiten.

"No you don't!" He held his swords above his head. "Fin!"

He struck the tendril dead on, releasing a fountain of energy. A thick Fin traveled down the tendril, tearing it in half and shooting it into the floor.

However, Kaiten used too much energy, and the tendril struck through the floor, breaking it. Kaiten realized his error seconds too late. Each of the tendrils, wounded or not, swarmed into the hole, like they had found a new source of energy.

They had found the burning house.

"No!" Kaiten said. He flew down, chopping a tendril apart to make room for himself.

He flew in, watching the scene unfold. The tendrils were scattered throughout, most inspecting the blood, a few inside the house itself. He didn't know what they were doing or what they could do, but having them inside here was very bad.

The impossible situation because worse when the blood began to bubble. Two boxes floated through the blood and came to rest.

Kaiten remembered the last time he had seen those. When Trevor found them, he was able to tap into a vast well of energy. If Soulcage was able to tap into it…

Kaiten flew into the invasive tendril nearest to the boxes. He cut it in half, leaving it useless and dying. The victory was short lived though, when three more tendrils swarmed in and crashed into one box. The blood cracked open, revealing its secret, and a blinding light consumed Trevor's entire subconscious.

The memory book, labeled 'Forgotten Childhood', opened…

XXXXXXXX

The last thing I remembered was the blurry vision, feeling like I didn't fit inside my own body. Soulcage had attacked us and—

"Soulcage!"

I sat up.

I was free of the mental grasp from before, and from the fire and tendrils. I could move around. I was inside a large, white room.

_Did I get pulled into my subconscious again?_

My answer came in the shape of a folding chair. Several, in fact.

Rows and rows of chairs covered a wet field. There was a podium behind me. I turned again and saw some people, nicely dressed, sitting in the chairs, crying. Some were leaning on each other for support.

"This is… familiar…"

Every time I turned around, more details came into light. Soon, the sky cleared and I could see the horizon.

I was in a graveyard, at someone's funeral. A coffin was closed behind the podium and covered lovingly in flowers.

Another turn revealed my father, sitting in the front row. He was younger than I remembered him, and he had more hair.

And there, sitting next to him, was me, only five years old.

"Thank you for your kind words, Miss Andrews."

I turned around and saw a priest, dressed in black, standing at the podium.

The priest folded his hands. "And now we will hear from the you woman's father, Shawn Scheise."

There were some groans and sighs from the audience. Already, I could feel like I hated the next speaker.

An old, fat man walked up to the podium. He was dressed sharply and had his hair combed neatly to one side. He grabbed the side of the podium, like he was about to make the hardest speech of his life.

"My daughter's death was tragic," he said. "She was far too young and had not seen enough of life. Let us not forget that an accident like hers is—"

"What accident!" my father yelled. He jumped from his seat in the front row. "You pushed her to this! Don't act like you're not at fault!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way William," Scheise said. "But the fact is, she died of a horrible accident and—"

"There was nothing accidental about it! You're only lucky the goddamn police won't do anything to you! Get out of here!"

"I have a right to be here!"

"Not after what you did to her!" My father picked up a nearby rock and threw it with all his strength, barely missing the old, fat man.

Most of the people in the funeral remained quiet, although a few people who seemed to know the truth nodded and cheered in agreement. The priest tried to intervene, but Jeff, a friend of my father's that I recognized, stopped him.

The scene worsened when my younger self stood up and picked up a rock. He threw it, hitting Scheise in the shoulder.

"Go away…" he said between tears. "You… stupid ASSHOLE!"

XXXXXXXX

The scene quickly faded. I shook my head, trying to process everything clearly.

_That was my mother's funeral, wasn't it?_

I didn't have time to think though. The next scene came on quickly.

This time, I saw my younger self immediately. He was sitting in a big chair, hugging his knees to his chest and slowly rocking himself. His eyes were cold and dead.

I looked around. We were in a police station. A few uniformed cops walked around the waiting area we were in. They didn't seem to notice the kid in the big chair hugging his knees.

"I don't care!" came a yell. I looked over and saw my father again, screaming at a cop. "He did this! In her childhood! He's the reason this all happened!"

"Sir," the cop said, trying to calm my father. "Unless we have direct proof, we can't really investigate anything. And without a complaining witness, we can't look into a case of abuse."

"There's no complaining witness because SHE'S DEAD!"

I began to remember this. I was so confused at the time. I didn't know why all of this was happening and I just wanted to go home and be alone. And meanwhile, my father was too busy trying to get revenge. Too busy to notice his son.

I didn't even remember what had happened. They were talking about my mother, but she died in a car crash.

…Didn't she?

XXXXXXXX

The next scene came faster than the others.

I was in a field this time, near the suburbs it looked like.

The field was wide and open. It slowly came back to me. The nearby street, the walkway, the gardens all around… I used to come here when I was a kid. A lot. The memory was fuzzy, but it was starting to come back. I used to practice t-ball here and run around in circles with my friends until we were so dizzy that we fell over.

There was a woman and a four-year old kid next to a tree. The kid was already climbing a good four feet off the ground. The woman stood nearby, one hand ready to grab on to him if he fell.

"Look mommy!" the kid said. "I'm higher than you!"

"Yes you are," the woman smiled. She was beautiful. She had long, silky blonde hair and wore a floral dress. She smiled lovingly at her son, like he made everything right for her. Her other hand rested on her stomach, which had a small bulge.

She was pregnant.

"Mommy, look! I can go higher!"

"Be careful sweetie."

I walked closer to get a better view of the mother and child, but somehow, I already knew who they were.

"…Mom?"

XXXXXXXX

The next scene rushed so quickly that I barely noticed the change. I was at a house in the suburbs, with a picket fence, a wide open field, a shed next to the front gate, and a large, green house at the top of a hill. It was a beautiful place to live, but I froze in horror.

This was the very same house from my nightmares.

"No, something…" I trailed off. "Something's not right…"

I looked around. When was this? Where were my parents? Where was I? Something very bad happened in this house.

I heard a noise behind me, a low rumbling of a car. Fearing the imminent deadly car crash, I turned and saw…

Myself. Five years old again and getting off a school bus.

Several other kids got off too. My younger self waved at them and ran through the gate and up the hill.

I began noticing and remembering everyone in an instant. There was a soft, gentle breeze. It was late spring. I lived here. Dad would be home soon. I did really well on a test that day and wanted to show my parents.

And something was very, very wrong.

I remembered the last time I had had the dream. Something happened today. Something in the kitchen.

"Kid, stop!" I yelled. I knew it was pointless, but I felt like I had to do something.

My younger self just kept running. Up the hill and to the front door.

"No, no, no, no, no." I chased after him. I reached out to grab him as he walked inside, but I just tumbled into the front hall instead.

And that's when I saw it…

"Mom!" my younger self yelled. "I'm home! Can I have a san'wich?"

He put his little bookbag down next to the door and kicked his shoes off without untying them.

"Mom?" he called again. "Where are you?"

"No…"I said. I was overwhelmed. I dropped instantly as I remembered everything. The memories came back at the same instant that I saw them played before me. I shook out of fear, because I knew what was going to happen.

"Mooom!" My younger self walked around the corner and into the kitchen, determined to get some kind of a snack.

Instead, he saw our mother, leaning against the refrigerator, very pale, covered in her own blood, dead.

"…Mom?"

Her entire torso was soaked in red. Her throat had been slashed wildly, slicing her jugular in the process. The knife was still in her hand, a thin layer of blood resting on it.

"Mom!" my younger self ran to our mother's side and grabbed her, shaking her. "Get up! Mom, get up! You're hurt!"

The phone was off the hook. Someone had called recently. My younger self saw this too and grabbed the phone, smearing it with some of mom's blood. He tried to remember the numbers our parents told him to dial. After several tries, he got through and started babbling to the 911 operator on the line.

I just leaned against the wall. I felt so many things. Anger, depression, confusion, rage, helplessness… My amnesia was lifted. I now remembered everything from when I was a kid.

My life was perfect. I was happy and my family was well-off. I was going to have a baby brother, named Evan. Then my mother got the call from her father… and it ruined everything.

XXXXXXXX

**You seem useful,** Soulcage taunted. **Your souls don't fit your body, but they will power this tree for a very long time.**

I remembered…

I remembered everything…

My grandfather, who had abused my mother for years as a child, decided to call one day. It threw my mother into such a fit that she cut her throat to get away. I should have seen it before. My aunt and uncle died from similar consequences. She a drug overdose and he crashed into an oncoming semi. The story about my mother's car crash was a lie.

"Everything…" was all I could say as a single tear ran down my cheek. Soon, sadness gave way to anger. I could feel something within me ignite, then explode. It caught on my breath and choked me. The anger wanted to get out however it could.

I didn't notice when the first spark came out of my chest, or the several after that, but before I knew it, I was covered in light. Sparks swarmed all over me, from head to foot. It sounded like an army of crickets chirped over me. I felt energy like I had never felt before. It coursed through every vein in my body.

When the light cleared, I was glowing a metallic green.

I broke free of Soulcage's mental grasp, grabbing the tendrils sinking into my chest.

"Get. Off."

I yanked the tendrils out and threw them aside. I fell, landing solidly on my feet. My short swords were right by my sides. I grabbed them by the pommels and flipped them into my hands.

I stood, more powerful than ever before, and very, very angry.

"I am going to FUCKING KILL YOU!"


	22. Anger's Aftermath

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: The last chapter certainly was fun, wasn't it? ^^ I had a bit of a rush writing it, getting 5000 words on paper in one day. It was perhaps the biggest chapter (plot wise) in all of Shattered Mind so far, so I wanted to get it out quickly and efficiently. I'm glad it got the praise it did. XD

I also wanted to say, sorry about this chapter being late, and sorry about the quality in some places. I started it when I was feeling really depressed, then finished it after I got a date with a really beautiful girl that I met due to pure luck, then I found out that same girl was actually a gold digger who was out for a free meal, so she can rot in hell for all I care. So if this chapter seems kind of bi-polar, you know why. :P

I've had a bit of an allowance in my writing lately. With a recent change in how it handles things, now offers authors a much bigger paycheck if they submit work for sale. The devil's in the details, of course, but if I can get a collection of short stories there, not only can everyone buy it cheap, but I get 70% in royalties, much, much better than the 10% royalties it was before. ^^

Look for "The Siegfried Line Stories" sometime in the coming months. A collection of short stories about several Allied squads as they pass through Germany's last major defense line in World War II.

So, in addition to Shattered Mind, I'm also writing a novel, this history project, and a script for a machinima I'm trying to direct. You get the feeling that I have too much free time on my hands?

Oh, and getting back to Shattered Mind…

CHAPTER WARNING! Trevor. Is. Pissed.

Chapter 21: Anger's Aftermath.

XXXXXXXX

Trance.

I had never really understood why it was called what it was. Now that I could experience it, I knew the answer. I didn't know what it was like for anyone else, but I could feel my rage taking over, almost mesmerizing me. The explosion of emotion blinded me to everything irrelevant around me. I knew Zidane and the others were behind me and still hurt, but I didn't care.

**Impossible,** Soulcage said. **You shouldn't have enough strength to move.**

I could hear my teeth grinding as my heart raced and my breath pulsed. If I were in a better mood, I would have worried about one of them cracking. "Shut… the fuck up… and die…"

**I will end this insolence now.**

Soulcage moved to strike at me with several branches, but there was so much adrenaline in my veins, so much raw energy, that he seemed to move in slow motion.

I countered quickly. A single swing of Crimson and all the branches vanished, cast into the pit below. I charged both swords with energy so fast it felt like they were going critical. Demon Sabers channeled into both of them.

I leapt and slashed at Soulcage's foliage. It reeled back, but wasn't fast enough. I took off most of the leaves on the left side of its head, landing on Soulcage and using its naked shoulder as a perch.

Soulcage roared in pain. It tried to swipe at me in slow motion with its remaining branches from its right side. I swung Azure at them, turning the Demon Saber into an Explosion in the fraction of a second. The attacks collided, exploding in the tree's face and blasting off the rest of the branches.

He was no more than a large stick with a head now. If I had known Trance was this strong, I would have tried to unlock it weeks ago.

**No… this can't be happening…**

"I've had enough of your shit!"

**This is not my time!**

"Shut the fuck up!"

In a desperate move, Soulcage gathered his energy for another Shockwave. Light circled around him and started to concentrate.

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hitting me. Crimson still had a Demon Saber ready. I leapt down from my perch, striking the tree straight down the middle. The wood snapped and cracked as it fell to my blade. When I landed, the top half of Soulcage's body bent two different ways.

Soulcage grew weak. It didn't protest, but let out a weak breath. The light now condensed into a pinprick at what was left of its core. It bottled up, ready to explode.

I simply jumped again. My chi wasn't the only thing to vastly improve. I was able to leap onto the higher platform behind myself that housed the leaf we came down on. Soulcage's Shockwave detonated, but since no one was in the blast radius, it just cleared away some of the loose debris.

Beating the hell out of this arrogant twig felt great, but I could sense my rational mind coming back. My Trance probably wouldn't last much longer, so I had to end things in the next attack.

**If you kill me, the process will go out of control! The souls will not cycle!**

I just snarled. "If you have an ass, you can shove your fucking process right up it!"

I used all of my remaining power to unleash the strongest attack I could muster. The power bled into my blades like they were just another part of myself. The energy flowed so freely, I could do whatever I wanted with it. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I brought my blades together and commanded them, "Rend and erupt in bleeding fury!" The chant helped keep my concentration as I jumped at Soulcage from the platform. As I fell, I swung my swords wildly. Arcs spouted from the tips and ripped through the air, hitting the tree at its base dozens of times.

As soon as I neared the tree, my arms crossed over my chest, blades held far out. I capped them with Explosions using the last ounces of strength I had…

"Radiant Barrage!"

…And brought them together.

The resulting blast was more than enough to cover the end of the platform. I was surrounded in shining energy, like I had fallen into a warm pool. The Radiant Barrage cut away at Soulcage's trunk and the blast blew it away. The roots were all that were left as Soulcage fell backwards into the green water below.

Unfortunately, so did I. I miscalculated my jump and overshot the platform by inches. I went sailing over the edge and towards the water.

"No!"

I desperately swung my blades at the lip of the platform. Crimson just sliced through the wood, but Azure, with its gut hooks, gripped it firmly. I stopped falling and hung limply by my short sword.

My Trance faded and my energy all left me. The shining green color faded from me. I still had burns all over myself from before and it hurt to move. I was so tired, I felt like I could sleep for a day.

Images of my recovered memories came back to me. How my father yelled, how I knew my family would never be complete again, how my mother looked, covered in her own blood…

I just wanted to let go and rest.

Gently, so gently that I barely noticed, Crimson fell from my hand. I watched it flip slowly to the pool below. _Too bad. I liked that sword._

I felt my grasp loosen from Azure…

"Trevor, no!"

My eyes closed. I felt so little. I could have fallen asleep if it weren't for one nagging voice…

"Don't you dare give up you idiot!"

I looked up at the platform. No one was there. It was then I noticed that I couldn't feel my hand.

"If you die, I die. I'm not letting you fall."

At the last second, Kaiten had taken over my hand. Now he had a death grip on Azure.

"_Kaiten?_" I asked. I only now realized that I wasn't in control of my body. I couldn't feel anything. "_When did you take over?_"

"I didn't," he said. "I don't have enough strength to. I just control the head and right hand."

"_But why are you talking?_"

"I saw what you saw and I thought you needed to hear someone's voice for real. …I'm sorry about your mother."

"_She…_"

The walls of the Iifa tree started to groan and shake. "Talk later. We need to get out of here now!" Kaiten took a deep breath and yelled, "Hey! Does someone want to give me a hand here!"

There were a few seconds before I saw anything, but there was a white light coming near. A second later, Zidane popped over the edge and looked down.

"Trevor!" he said excitedly. "That was incredible! You—"

"Talk later. Blade slipping. Help now?" Kaiten certainly got to the point.

Zidane reached down and grabbed my arm. He pulled as hard as he could, lifting me slowly back on to solid ground. I couldn't do much to help, so I kicked my legs, trying to lift them over as soon as I could see the floor. And since my luck hadn't been bad enough that day, my knee hit Azure on the pommel. The blade had been loose enough that it came free. I couldn't react in time, save to watch it fall after its brother.

"Shit…" I muttered. I had control again. Kaiten must have really used the last of his strength if he didn't hang around longer.

Zidane pulled one last time and yanked me completely onto the platform. Dagger and Eiko had healing spells ready for me. The cast white lights over me, erasing my wounds and burns. My body stopped hurting, but that was it..

"Good job there Trevor," Zidane said. "I didn't know you could Trance!"

I didn't say anything. I just laid in silence.

"Hey, are you alright? You saved us and looked incredibly badass doing it! You should be celebrating!"

"Zidane…" I finally said. "Just shut up."

He backed off. Part of me felt bad for talking to him like that, but I just wanted to be left alone. I had to gather my thoughts for a while.

Zidane looked at me curiously. He was probably wondering if I was back to acting like a freak again, like Kaiten had acted. I just ignored it and slowly pushed myself to my feet.

"Come on guys," Zidane said. "Let's get out of here."

XXXXXXXX

We didn't get a good chance to see the changes we made as we left the Iifa tree behind. There was still plenty of mist still resting in the cracks between the roots. The cloud of mist that covered our path was gone, but that was the most significant change.

The afternoon sun seemed amplified as we walked to a safe distance away to wait for Kuja. I started to break into a sweat from the humidity. As if I needed more reason to go insane.

An hour's march brought us to a small rock formation. The others were still excited about our victory. Vivi and Eiko tried telling me that I looked really cool while I was fighting. Dagger joked that I looked good in green. However, I didn't talk back. I couldn't possibly explain to them what just happened, so I remained silent the whole walk back. Zidane tried to ask me what was wrong, but I lied and said it was nothing.

I felt so alone.

"Wow, the air's so clean!" Eiko cheered as she climbed a big rock. The area around us started to clear up when seen from a higher angle. Wind dissipated the mist slowly. The Mist Continent was probably doing the same right about now. "The Iifa Tree looks so pretty now. Will this clear up your Mist Continent?"

"I think so," Zidane said. "Now, let's see if Kuja shows up."

I didn't want to fight. I didn't want to do much of anything. Even if Kuja showed up, what was I supposed to do? Pull his hair? I felt naked without my swords. I just found a nice shady spot behind the rocks and sat down by myself.

"_If it makes you feel any better, my parents died when I was young too_."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. _It doesn't, but thanks for trying._

"_Look, I know this is going to take some time to recover from, so if you want me to take over and cover for you so the others don't suspect anything, I will. I'll try to act more like you this time so they won't notice anything._"

_I thought you were too tired for that?_

"_Well, at the moment, yeah. The mental strain that tree gave me, and fighting those tentacle things really wore me out. Just give me a few hours and I should be good._"

I almost laughed at how pitiful the situation was. How long had I been in Gaia? A month? And right now, my best friend was the voice in my head.

I ran my hand over my face. I felt so empty…

"Trevor?"

I opened one eye and looked out the corner of it. Dagger was standing next to me.

"Eiko says something was stolen from her village," she said. "A moogle just ran here to tell us, so we're heading back."

"Yeah, alright," I said.

"Are you feeling alright? You're back here by yourself. Normally you'd be hanging out with the rest of us."

"Jus' wanted shade."

"Um, alright… You just seem really out of it."

"Sorry."

She offered her hand to help me up. Instead, I reached behind myself and grabbed the rock I was leaning against, using it to push myself up. I started walking towards the mountain path to Maiden Sari.

"You'd tell us if something was wrong," Dagger said. "Right?"

I lied again. "Yeah."

As soon as the theft in the village was dealt with, I was going to take a very long nap.

XXXXXXXX

It was late afternoon when we got back. The sun was starting to fade into the horizon. It didn't help the village's image any though. The sunset made this place look like it was burning.

Eiko ran into the street at the front of town and yelled. "I'm home!"

There was no answer.

"I'M HOME!"

This time, the moogles in town ran to Eiko's side. They all looked nervous and scared. Morrison, the tallest, led the moogles out front.

"Moco told me the news," Eiko said. "Are you alright?"

Morrison just grabbed Eiko by the hand and dragged her along. "Come now! Talk later, kupo!"

"H-Hey, Eiko!" Zidane called after her. She didn't react though. Eiko took off as fast as she could into town, running around the corner to her house.

"We'd better follow her!" Zidane decided. He, Dagger and Vivi dashed off after her as well. I followed, but slowly. The others were out of sight in seconds. I just sighed, wondering how quickly this was all going to resolve itself.

I found myself wandering in the plaza. There was a bench across from the fountain, so I sat down. I could hear the moogles congregating together down the block, 'Kupo'ing their heads off in a panic. The wall next to me looked smooth and comfortable, so I just leaned against it and closed my eyes. I only got about a minute of rest before I was interrupted.

"Trevor?"

I glanced to the side and saw Vivi walking towards me. "Everyone's wondering where you are," he said.

"Sorry," I said. "I'm just really tired."

"Well, I heard Eiko talking. The thief stole a really important jewel from under her house. I thought she was going to cry."

"Too bad," I said, trying to act like normal.

"Are you alright?" Vivi asked. He took a seat next to me. "You've been acting weird ever since… well, weirder than normal I guess. Um, sorry."

"Don't worry," I said. I sank back into my seat.

"I'm just kinda worried though," Vivi continued. "I keep thinking… we stopped the mist and all, but no more Black Mages will be made. I just hope the others aren't mad at me or anything."

Normally, I wouldn't mind helping someone else, but couldn't I have time to myself for once? What if I needed a break? Is everyone else allowed to just bother me like I didn't matter?

I ran my hand over my face. Damn I was tired. "Vivi, the mist also drove people insane and made them want to fight, and it spawned monsters. If the other Black Mages can't understand the common good that came out of getting rid of the mist, then their opinions shouldn't matter to you."

"You really think so?"

"We've saved more people than you can imagine by killing that damn tree. What if there was another war like the one Brahne started just because someone got too close to some mist?"

"Hmm… I guess you're right."

"Course I am."

At first, I thought I heard Vivi laugh, but then I realized it wasn't him. There was a feminine snicker coming from across the plaza. "Well, well… I didn't expect to see you two here."

I was so out of it, I didn't even see Lani show up. She grinned and pulled out her axe with one hand. There was a round jewel in the other.

"Hey!" Vivi shouted. "You're the woman from the tunnel! You tried to kill us!"

"Where's your fat friend?" she taunted. "Actually, I don't care. I'm just here for the princess."

"Go away!" Vivi yelled. He pulled out his staff and stood his ground.

Lani scoffed. "And what about you?" she asked me. "Aren't you going to fight?"

"No need," I said, blandly. "You're hardly a threat."

"Not a threat?" Lani swung her axe at me. It cracked into the wall behind me, splitting the stones like they were paper. The blade finally stopped just above my shoulder, only a hair's breath away.

"Eek. Help me," I said in a voice so monotone it made Ben Stein look like a cheerleader. I didn't mean to taunt her, I just didn't give a shit.

"Trevor!" Vivi yelled. He launched a fireball at Lani, barely missing me. The redheaded bounty hunter pulled back, yanking her axe out of the wall. It grazed my shoulder as it passed.

"Looks like you both still have a pair," she grinned. "Not many people can face me and stay standing. In fact, you're the first ones to get away from me."

"Bullshit," I said. "Zidane and Dagger got away too."

Lani glared at me hatefully. "You don't know when to stop, do you?" She held up her axe, ready to strike.

"Hey, you!" Eiko was standing in the street, pointing at Lani. "That's MY village's stone! Give it back!"

"This thing?" Lani asked. She glanced briefly at the stone in her hand. "I don't really want it, but it looks like something I'm hunting for. I'm taking it."

"No, you can't!" Eiko yelled. "I won't let you!" She pulled out her flute and began playing a summoning tune.

"No you don't!" Lani dashed in and knocked the flute out of Eiko's hands. Before the girl could recover, Lani smacked her down and pinned her with a knee.

"Eiko!" Vivi yelled. He ran to help her, but Lani flexed her leg and kicked him in the chest. He flipped backwards once and landed face down. I was concerned and wanted to help them, but I couldn't find the energy to move.

Lani stood and held Eiko over her shoulder. "I want the princess and the monkey-boy brought to me in the next few minutes. I know they're near. I'll be waiting in the room with all the paintings. If they're not there, then this brat dies."

"I am not a brat!" Eiko shouted as she struggled to get free. "Trevor, why aren't you doing anything?"

I realized that if I didn't do something, my cover would be blown, then I would have to explain everything to the others. I couldn't have that. They still needed me and they needed to think that I was still perfectly fine. Wearily, I rose to my feet. I held my arms defensively, unsure what the hell I was going to do. Going unarmed against a crazed axe-wielding bounty hunter was suicidal.

Lani just twisted around and swung her axe at me. I couldn't dodge in time and she knocked me in the head with the flat of the blade. The blow threw me aside and I crumpled next to the fountain.

"Pass on the message _now_!" Lani ordered. I could barely lift myself up as she carried Eiko away. Eiko screamed and protested the whole way, but she was defenseless as Lani carried the girl over her shoulder.

Slowly, I rubbed my head and neck. As if I wasn't in enough pain before.

"Trevor!" Vivi said in a panic. "She took Eiko! What do we do?"

I moved so gently that a spider could have made a cobweb on me. My head was pounding and even the light hurt to look at.

"Get Dagger and Zidane," I told him. "I'll follow them."

"Alright!" he said. I saw him turn and rush towards Eiko's house.

I rubbed my neck with both my hands. Why did this have to happen now? I couldn't deal with any of this. I trudged along, dragging both my feet.

I fell more than once as I walked to the Eidolon Wall where Lani was keeping Eiko. The third time I fell, I just gave up. I could see wall rising over the next corner, but I didn't care. I just rested with my face in the dirt. It was soft and warm. It felt nice.

Kaiten clearly wasn't amused by it though. "_Are you really just going to lay here like this?_"

_Leave me alone,_ I insisted.

"_The others are going to be here any second! Get up!_"

_I don't feel like it._

"_Then let me take over before—_"

"Trevor?" Zidane ran to my side and knelt down. "What are you doing?"

"_Dammit, too late._" I started losing feeling all over my body. _"Just let me handle this._"

"Sorry," Kaiten said. "I haven't been feeling well since we got back from the Iifa Tree." He stood quickly and brushed some dust from my arm. "Let's get going."

We started running again. I just slumped into a corner of my mind and felt like I was being dragged along like luggage. Dagger and Vivi came running with the moogles right behind us. Everyone ran to the Eidolon Wall without a word. They were all too concerned over what had happened to Eiko.

When we neared the doorway, we stopped. Zidane held up a hand, telling us to wait. The moogles all hovered around the doorframe, glancing in with Zidane. Dagger tried to stay back, but couldn't help trying to peer inside as well. Vivi just held himself back, fiddling with his hands.

"Alright," Zidane said as he regrouped with us. "She's in there with Eiko in the middle of the room. I have a plan. Trevor, can you and Mog run a distraction for me?"

Mog shook nervously and hid behind the much larger Morrison.

"Sorry," Morrison said. "Mog's always been a coward."

"Mog, don't worry," Zidane tried to reason. "You won't be in any danger."

Mog just shook her head and stayed hidden behind the older moogle.

Zidane sighed. "Never mind then. Trevor, can you do something?"

"How?" Kaiten asked harshly. "If you didn't notice, my swords fell into the Iifa Tree."

"I'm sure you can do something without weapons."

"What do you expect me to do? Strip tease?"

Zidane grumbled. "Never mind then. We'll just have to try to get Eiko out somehow."

He walked in confidently, keeping his head high and his shoulders back. Dagger and Vivi walked in, much more on guard. Kaiten just strode in like he was walking to the kitchen. Lani looked down at us and laughed, keeping her axe near Eiko's throat.

"About damn time you show up," she sneered.

I watched lazily as the whole thing played out like a movie before myself. Lani drugged Eiko and held onto her sleeping body while Zidane tried to negotiate. It didn't go well though. Lani demanded the pendant that Dagger stole when she last fled from Alexandria. She probably planned to kill us as well. Zidane and Vivi were still targets on Brahne's list.

"Enough of this!" Lani yelled. "Where is the pendant?"

"I have it," Zidane said.

"Bring it to me, or else!" She indicated

"Alright," Zidane said. He started to approach the bounty hunter, no doubt planning on using his pick pocketing dexterity to rescue Eiko and get away with the pendant, but a telltale smirk crossed his face. Lani instantly grew suspicious.

"Stop!" she ordered. You're up to something. You, black mage!"

"Huh? M-Me?" Vivi asked, pointing at himself.

"Bring me the pendant!" she ordered. She held her axe against Eiko's neck to remind us who was in control. " Remember, do as I say if you value this brat's life!"

"Zidane…?" Vivi asked nervously.

Zidane snarled under his breath. "Do it, Vivi."

"O-Okay…" He looked at me for a moment. Kaiten just nodded in Lani's direction. Vivi hesitated as he adjusted his hat and took the pendant from Zidane. He started to make his way to Lani when suddenly—

"Hold it!"

The deep voice that echoed in the chamber was quickly followed by a man falling from the sky. A _very_ large man. He knocked Eiko away from Lani and into Zidane's arms. Vivi took the chance to run back, still holding the pendant.

Zidane was happy to see the newcomer. "I dunno who you are, but thanks!"

The newcomer just grunted. His skin had a slight green tint and his head was engulfed in blood-red dreadlocks. He looked like a Jamaican orc who lived in a gym.

Eiko stirred in Zidane's arms. The shock of landing must have woken her up. Zidane glanced down at her and grinned. "Hey, can you stand?"

"Huh? What's going on?" Eiko shouted. She leapt from Zidane's arms and looked around. "Where's that old hag?"

"Oh, that's it!" Lani said. "Who are you calling a hag!"

Eiko put her hands on her hips and leered at Lani. "You!"

"So, the tables turn!" Zidane said. He drew his daggers and linked them together. "Give up. You're outnumbered."

Lani, seeing that she was hopelessly outmatched, snarled and lashed out at the red-haired man. "What are you tryin' to do, Amarant! I thought you were supposed to be the number one bandit!"

"I've seen him before!" Dagger said in shock, pointing at the newcomer. "He's the one with wanted posters all over Treno!"

The red-haired Man, Amarant, just grunted. "I'm not here to help," he told us. "I just want it to be fair."

"What are you talking about?" Lani demanded.

Amarant turned back to his former partner. "Leave the jewel and get out of here."

"What! We're partners on this job!"

"I don't work with hostage-taking scumbags. Now, get lost. Or, would you rather fight me?"

Lani couldn't help but growl. She threw the jewel she stole at us, but not before she slammed her axe into a nearby wall in frustration. A chunk of rock fell to the ground and a plume of dust rose. "Mark my words! I'll collect the bounty on YOU someday!"

Lani flipped her axe onto her back and jumped onto one of the low pillars. She jumped again over the wall and ran away, out of sight.

There was a collective sigh of relief as she vanished. Everyone was safe, Eiko was unharmed, and we still both the jewels. Eiko ran to pick up the village's gem and stuffed it into her pocket.

"That was pretty cool," she said to Amarant. "Thanks."

The tall bandit ignored her and faced Zidane. His look of boredom molded into a scowl and he adopted a low fighting stance.. "Now, fight me!"

Zidane raised an eyebrow and held his hands in front. "Just a second here," he said. "What's going on?"

"I told you. I'm not here to help." Amarant was wearing a pair of clawed gauntlets on both hands and dug them into the hard ground like it was paper. "I just want to level the playing field."

Zidane shook his head and took a step forward. "Fair enough. Let's do it." He held his weapons defensively.

Dagger couldn't believe it. "Zidane!"

Zidane just gave her an arrogant grin. "It's okay. I was just looking for more ways to impress you!"

"No, you can't! Trevor, do something!"

"Don't have any weapons," Kaiten shrugged. "He'll be fine. I'm going to get a drink."

"What?"

Kaiten just smirked and gave Zidane a pat on the shoulder as he left. "Kick some ass, _buddy_."

Kaiten walked away as the sounds of battle started to echo throughout the village. We could hear battle shouts and the clash of steel as we left the Eidolon Wall behind.

"_Well, that was fun,_" I said. "_You finally get to have free range with my body and you still can't do what you want._"

_It's all to get to Terra,_ he explained. _I need these guys to get there. Acting friendly to a bunch of greenies is a miniscule sacrifice._

"_Tch. Whatever._"

_How are you holding up?_

"_I'm fine._"

That was hardly the truth. I was still in pain about everything. Even though I didn't have control of myself at the moment, I could still literally feel pain in my heart. I hadn't felt this bad ever since Shadow died. I was tired. Of everything. I just wanted to sleep for a long time.

…_I've seen horrible things done to men. Weapons have been built on Terra that you cannot even imagine. Machines that rip warriors apart on the battlefield. Bullets that dig inside a combatant's armor and skin and explode, blowing him to chunks. Small robots the size of spiders that latch onto men and burrow through their armor and skin and bone and they keep digging until there's nothing left to dig through. And every time we get a chance to rest and count our losses, the worst damage I've always seen in the shell shock left on people's minds after they've seen their friends died these excruciating deaths. They can't cope, they can't go on, and they never survive through the next battle._

"_And why are you telling me this?_"

_Because it's exactly what's happening to you now. And I don't know if you know it, but the monkey and the princess are starting to notice._

"_They have no idea what's going on._"

_But they're getting suspicious! Do you honestly think they've been ignoring the last few days? Sure, I was screwing around the first time in the canyon, but if we keep acting like that, then you're going to wind up in a psych ward, I'll never get my revenge, and we'll never find out who did this to us or how to separate!_

Kaiten was right. I needed to be strong, but it was too hard. I wasn't supposed to be here. I was just a dumb college student. I was supposed to be failing my science class, not risking my life to save the universe! This hero stuff was beyond me, and I was only now figuring it out.

"_Just leave me alone,_" I said. "_I just want to sleep._"

_Not until you agree to let me help you. You're…_ Kaiten stopped talking. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before he spoke again. _You're the closest thing I have to a friend right now._

There was another pause. For the longest time, neither of us talked. Then Kaiten added, _Look, we'll get some rest and maybe you'll talk tomorrow. You can't handle this alone. No one can._

Maybe it was because I was tired, or maybe I was losing my mind, but the twisted irony made me laugh. Just over a week ago, Kaiten and I tried to fight to the death. Now, here we were, brothers in arms. I couldn't help but laugh.

"_You know, that does make me think about the fight earlier today. With the tree._"

_You mean how you tranced? Yeah. I'm going to have to learn how to do that too._

"_No, I meant after the fight._" I chuckled. "_That was the first time you used my name._"

Kaiten let out a short laugh. _Yeah, I suppose it was. …But now that I think about it, that fight was strange._

"_What do you mean?_"

_Psychic powers aside, he could detect me, like he could just sense I was there. I had to fight the tentacles he sent into my home._

"_Your home?_"

_Your mind. Whatever. Anyway, that thing had some powers over souls. Some way to control them._

"_So what?_"

_On Terra, some people could access hidden strength by having total control over their souls. That's the very essence of purple magic. The people who could harness that power were amazingly strong, and each was worth a thousand other soldiers._

"_And?_"

_Well, scientists came in to study us all the time, as they tend to do. They wanted to find a way to replicate the effect, or use it as an external power source. Soul energy was unfathomably strong. We had machines that could direct souls and measure them, like the filtering device in the Iifa Tree, but we couldn't unleash their power._

"_Did the scientists find anything?_"

_Not what they wanted, but they came up with two theories about purple magic. First, that it was genetic. You had to be born with the right genes in order to have the power. Second, there was no way to access another person's power. Not for energy, or combat, or anything._

"_What does that have to do with us?_"

_During the fight, that tree disrupted my power. It stopped me from helping you fight. It found a way to break the second theory._

"_But I thought you said that was impossible._"

_Not quite. There was one man insane and immoral enough to experiment with people and find ways to control other souls. The Madman of Brumia, Hart Innural._

There was another short silence as I remembered the name. "_That's the guy you're after, isn't it?_"

_That sick freak killed my men after he experimented on them. He was the only one who could properly administrate something like Operation Soulcage._

"_Wait… so you're saying—_"

_We're probably looking for the same person._

The shock hit me like a bolt of lightning. This was the first clue I had in finding anything about the old men. Now, I had something to fight for.

"_You're sure it's the same guy? Maybe someone just copied his notes or techniques._"

_I'm sure. You don't pass down methods like that. Very few people are evil enough to stomach it and still understand it._

"_But how are you so sure it's him?_"

_Remember the experiments I told you about? When my men and I went in to capture him, he tricked us and captured us instead. In the end, he taunted me by telling me some of the experiments he did to my comrades. Those experiments, Operation Soulcage and what happened to us all stink of the same madman._

"…_Fine,_" I finally said. "_Then we'll go to Terra, kill Innural, then I'll find a way home and I'll kill my… mother's father._"

_Good. Now we're getting somewhere._

"_The only problem now is, how the hell am I going to get home?_"

I didn't get an answer. An explosion coming from the Eidolon Wall resounded through the air behind me. I turned around in time to see a red plume of light bursting out of the top.

"_Looks like Zidane won._"

_How can you tell?_

"_He probably tranced trying to show off for Dagger. It always happened for me when I played the game._"

_That seems to be happening a lot lately. We don't need to worry about him. Let's get some food and rest up for the night. Tomorrow's going to be hell._

"_Yup. There's probably some fish left. Maybe one of the moogles can get one for us._"

_Fine, but I'm staying in control for dinner. I can't remember the last time I got to taste something._

"_Fine. At least I won't have to suffer Eiko's cooking again._"

_Oh, yeah. Heh, that was funny._

"_Shut up._"

There was a soft wind washing over the village. The air from the sea came in and smelled like salt. I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks along the foundation below us. The sun was starting to set in the horizon behind the village. It was a placid sensation. I could see why the summoners decided to found a village here however long ago they did. This place was beautiful in the evening.

"Trevor!"

Zidane was running up behind me. He was out of breath by the time he reached me and put his hands on his knees.

"Tough fight?" Kaiten asked.

"Yeah," Zidane said, panting hard. "That guy could knock down a building with one hand."

"You seem alright."

"Dagger and Eiko were quick with a few healing spells." He took one more deep breath and stood up tall. "That's not what I wanted to talk about though."

"Then what is it?" Kaiten asked. "Make it quick, I'm getting hungry."

"_Relax,_" I said. "_Zidane's just concerned._"

_Right, right. I'm not used to acting._

Zidane shook his head. "It's about the fight in the Iifa Tree today. I wanted to know—"

"About me having Trance? Simple: I don't know. I just powered up and kicked the tree thing's ass."

"No, before that." Zidane looked me square in the eye with all the seriousness in the world. "I haven't known you for long, but I was trained to read people since I was young. I got to know you a little, which is why I can tell that you've been acting weird lately."

"Maybe I was, but so what? I act weird when I'm hungry."

"I heard what the tree said during the battle Trevor. What did it mean when it said you had two souls?"


	23. And it all Came Together

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Ah, another chapter out and I'm almost back on schedule of updating on the 9th of every month. And even better, we're coming up on a big celebration point since there's only ONE CHAPTER LEFT IN THE BOOK OF ANGER! XD Quite the milestone if you ask me.

And also, because I haven't used them in a while, the two old men (Hart and Saiko) get to star in their longest cameo to date! :D

Chapter 22: And It All Came Together…

XXXXXXXX

"_Sssshhiiiiit_…"

And here I thought today couldn't get any worse.

"_Shit, shit, shit_."

"Trevor?" Zidane asked again. "Hello? The two souls thing?" He waved his hand in front of my face since Kaiten was zoning out.

"_What are you doing? Think of something!_"

_How?_ Kaiten asked. _Lying isn't exactly my specialty!_

My thoughts raced as I desperately tried to come up with a good excuse, but nothing reasonable came to mind. Telling the truth was definitely out. That would open way too many questions and I didn't need that. Not to mention I didn't have any proof.

So what else was there? I absorbed a twin while I was in the womb? My shadow had a personality? I had a ghost following me everywhere? Nothing worked without raising several, more difficult questions.

"I… don't know what you're talking about," Kaiten finally answered.

"Oh, come on," Zidane said. "We all heard it."

"Everyone… heard it?" Kaiten asked slowly. This was bad. If more people knew then there would be that many more people that I had to convince.

"Yeah, we all heard it in our heads. I just can't figure out what it meant."

"And neither can I," Kaiten struggled. He turned and tried walking away.

"Wait," Zidane said. He reached out for my shoulder. Kaiten twisted and knocked his arm away.

"Look, I don't know what it meant, ok?" Kaiten said. "Leave it at that!"

"We're just worried about you," Zidane said. "You've been acting weird for the last few days."

"I told you, I get weird when I'm hungry."

"Geez Trevor, knock it off! I'm trying to help!" Zidane just looked me square in the eye. "Dagger's been saying that we should leave you behind to keep you from hurting yourself when we find Kuja. I told her that it had to be something rational, but I won't lie to her."

There was an uneasy silence as Zidane took a breath. "Trevor, should we leave you behind?"

Kaiten was at wit's end. _I could use some help here…_

Suddenly, it came to me. "_I got it! Let me take over._"

I felt my control come back so fast that I nearly fell over. I stumbled for a step, but recovered quickly.

"I'm telling the truth," I lied. "I don't know everything, but it might have something to do with this blue light I've been dreaming about recently."

Zidane looked shocked for a moment. "Blue light?"

"Yeah. It's pretty, but I think it's bright since it hurts to look at. In my dreams, I'm walking along a lake, or a pond or something. I think the light is coming from the water."

Zidane bit his lips before he spoke. "And you're sure the light is blue?"

"Quite sure. And I don't know what it has to do with this 'two souls' thing, but I heard a voice in the dream too. It said something about a second soul."

"Alright." Zidane put his head on his hand and thought for a moment. "Is that everything you know about it? There's nothing else?"

"Not that I can tell. Why?"

"No reason." Zidane started to walk back to the Eidolon Wall.

"You know I'm still going with you, right?"

Zidane just waved his hand, indicating yes. I let out a breath and walked the other way.

"_Blue light?_" Kaiten asked. "_I don't know where you pulled that from, but nice work._"

_Zidane used to have the same dream. Maybe he still does. If that worked as well as I hoped, then we'll have a secret ally. Zidane will back us up in the future if any of the others start thinking that we're acting strange._

"_Ah, smart,_" Kaiten said, adding a chuckle. "_Now… any chance I can take over again? It's time for dinner._"

_Oh? I don't think that was part of the deal. After all, _I_ came up with the winning strategy back there._

"_Trevor!_"

_Hey, you used my name again._

"_I will end you._"

XXXXXXXX

"Excellent!"

Hart Innural was having a good day.

"Spectacular."

He scribbled notes furiously as screens and computers poured out information. Innural was busy recording and analyzing it as it came at him. He was so focused that he didn't notice Saiko walk into the room.

Saiko had seen the entire battle between Trevor and Soulcage in the viewing room. They boy appeared emotionally unstable, but he had survived. And if he lived through such an experience once, he could do it again. He was again on his way to becoming the perfect weapon. No doubt Hart was busy overlooking the data that the battle supplied.

"The plan worked," Saiko said in his usual calm demeanor. Innural didn't respond. He was too buried in his work. "Unit 00's rage has overcome him and he tranced. We picked the right soul to match with Lieutenant Saeis."

Innural scribbled something quickly on a clipboard, then dropped it to write on a chart that was busy printing out.

"You should be celebrating, and instead you're working harder than ever?"

"You don't get to be a genius by sitting around drinking wine," Innural said grimly. "You do it by working your ass off and studying every second you can."

"You should at least be glad that Operation Soulforge worked. Unit 00 and Unit 01 have fused perfectly. They are in harmony and their battle prowess has matched what we had hoped. And one of them can trance! You know how rare that is."

"I don't care that it worked!" Innural barked back. "All that matters is that I was right! My plans, my experiment, my genius!"

Saiko scoffed. Now that it was successful, Innural wanted full credit for Soulforge. And to think, mere days ago, he tried to deny any fault since the experiment would have been "a waste of materials".

"Now that this has worked, I can move on to my other experiments. I have so much work to do!"

"You plan to abandon Operation Soulforge? This is not a single experiment. This is a mission to save all of Terra!"

"And one you can handle yourself. But I? I am destined for greater things! I have violated Boleman's second theory of the soul! I will go down in history as the greatest mind in science!"

Saiko took a breath to keep himself calm. He couldn't believe he had to work with this madman. "Your methods are appalling. You will be remembered as a monster."

"Madman or monster, I will be remembered well. And in decades, when Terra is flourishing again, it will be through MY theories and methods!"

Saiko's eyes narrowed. His contempt for the man was growing too much, even for his patience. "If the council hadn't allowed you to go through with all of this—"

"The council? A lot of good they can do now in stasis!"

Saiko had had enough. Innural's arrogance was enough to drive anyone mad. Saiko hadn't killed him because of the council's orders and because he needed the madman to monitor Unit 00's status with Unit 01. But now, he was beginning to overlook all of that.

Saiko charged up a flare in his hand. The solar energy burned bright enough to blind anyone looking directly at it, but Innural had learned how to survive around men far more powerful than himself. He simply turned his back to his colleague and shrugged.

"You had better not hit any of my machines with that," Innural taunted. "Who knows what it would do to your precious mission?"

The explosion that Innural heard next caused him to jump out of his skin. He quickly turned and saw one of his machines blown to pieces. His jaw dropped as he stared in abject horror.

"What the hell are you doing?" Innural blurted out. "Don't you dare destroy my machines!"

Saiko charged another flare and aimed it at his madman partner. Innural shielded his eyes. "You will continue to work on Operation Soulforge," Saiko ordered. "And I don't care what the council said. If you give me another reason, I'll blow up your entire lab with you inside. You are a monster, but you still have a purpose. If you stray from that, you will die."

Saiko walked out of the lab, furious. The electric door hummed shut behind him. He never liked Brumians like Innural, but he could barely stand to be in the same room as him for more than a few minutes. Even when he tried to be civil, Innural drove him to madness.

Saiko walked into the windowed viewing room. It's rounded walls made for a panoramic view over the horizon and the landscape below the high-altitude laboratory. Saiko just tried to let out his exhaustion as he gazed down at the blue light of Bran Bal below.

XXXXXXXX

We ate alone for dinner. Motamose was kind enough to catch a fish for dinner and Kaiten was able to cook. It turned out that he had picked up some skill when he was young. He had to cook for himself after his parents died but before he was old enough to be accepted into the military. He said the fish reminded him of old times. We had found a secluded spot by the river so the others wouldn't bother us. Isolation could be a good thing sometimes.

I was glad to help Kaiten out like that. After what he did to help me out of my depression, it was the least I could do.

Dusk was settling in. There was only a little light off in the distance now. It was probably time to head off to bed.

"Scenic route?" Kaiten suggested.

"_Just don't damage my body._"

From the spot by the river, Kaiten got a running start and vaulted towards a rooftop. He ran along the edge, taking the corner tighter than I liked, and jumped to a ruined house. He landed on his hands and feet on a pile of rubble, then climbed up in one push.

The next rooftop had an inclined ceiling. Kaiten jumped down it, landing hard and sliding the rest of the way. He jumped just as we reached the alley and grabbed the lip of the building ahead of us. I cringed as he broke into a run along the next rooftop and threw himself off. He tucked at the last second and rolled along the ground. We crashed softly into a low wall.

"Whoo," Kaiten let out. "Hell of a rush."

"_This is what you do for adrenaline?_" I asked.

_Ever since I was a kid._

"_You should try street racing sometime. It's safer._"

_I wouldn't know the first thing about it._

"_You mean you've never driven a car before?_"

_Never had the pleasure._

"_Too bad. You're missing out._"

_Well maybe you should have tried free running more when you were a kid._

"_I grew up in the suburbs. The most I had to climb on was a mailbox._"

_You should have visited the city more. More things to do and more places to run. And it's a great way to explore._

"_Huh? Wait, what are you—_"

I didn't have a chance to object as Kaiten jumped over the low wall beside us. We fell a good ten feet before we landed on a dilapidated roof. There was a big hole behind us and another twenty-foot drop to the ocean right in front of us.

"_Don't do that!_" I yelled. "_We could have been killed!_"

_Just proving a point._

"_What point? That you secretly have a death wish?_"

_No, that I…_ Kaiten paused.

"_Very compelling. Please go on._"

_Hold on. I hear something._

"_What? I only hear waves._"

_No. Someone's singing something. Listen._

Kaiten kneeled down so I could have an easier time listening. Sure enough, a girl was humming a familiar tune close by.

"_It sounds like Dagger._"

_What do you think is down there?_

"_I dunno, but my guess is the harbor. There was on in the game, but I could never find a way down to it._"

_I think I know a way. I'll get us down there, you deal with the singing girl._

"_Hey, you're not gonna—_"

_Just keep your legs and arms together._

Kaiten took a running start and leapt off the roof. He aimed for the water and kept our arms and legs locked at the ankles and wrists. I started to get the feeling back in my legs just before I hit the water.

The water in the shade was freezing. I never liked ice baths, and I hated jumping into them unexpectedly even more. It's was like having a hundred cold daggers stab me all over. I screamed a little from the shock just before I surfaced.

_You did that just to mess with me, didn't you?_

"_Yup._"

_I hate you so much._

"_Have fun with your little talk. You're better at them than I am._"

"Trevor?"

I looked up from my spot in the water to see Dagger sitting along in a small rowboat. There was a small dock inside a cave. The waves echoed so much inside, there was no wonder I could hear her humming.

"Hey," I said, swimming over to the dock. "Mind giving me a hand up?"

She stepped off the boat and reached down to help me. I took her hand and hoisted myself up in one pull. If there was a ladder on this dock before, it had rotted away long ago. The wood was worn and unkempt. I worried about it breaking underneath me.

"What are you doing down here?" Dagger asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," I said. "I fell. What's your excuse?"

"I just… needed some time alone."

She shied away and sat back down on the boat. I sat down on the sock next to her. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Dagger looked back at me with her sad puppy-dog eyes for a moment before she answered. "I'm not even sure. I think I just feel this way because of how Zidane's been acting lately."

"You mean like how he fought that mercenary on his own?"

"Well, yeah. There's that. And lately, it's felt like he's been going out of his way to show off to me and protect me."

"Ah," I said, finally understanding. "I get it now."

"You've always been easy to talk to," she said, pleading. "What do you think I should do?"

"Well, that depends. How do you feel about him?"

Dagger started to blush for a moment and turned away to look down at the water. "I… He's strong, I guess. And he's always looking out for us."

"True. He's probably the only person who can beat me in combat these days." I wasn't sure how true that was though. I was going to have to fight Zidane to find out someday.

"It's not just that," Dagger continued. "He's also sweet. And brave. And…"

"Handsome?"

"What?" Dagger jumped. "No, I wasn't going to say that."

"But you were thinking it," I said. "You like him, don't you?"

Dagger's blush deepened. She hugged her knees to her chest inside the little boat.

"And the only reason these feelings are coming out now is because Zidane's occupied with Eiko all the time. It feels like he's drifting away, doesn't it?"

"How do you—"

"I'm psychic, remember? I have powers."

Dagger ignored my lame joke. "You can't tell him about it. It would never work. He's a thief and I'm going to be queen someday."

"Yeah. I guess royalty wouldn't use the usual dating scene."

"I'm supposed to meet suitors from other kingdoms and marry one of them to combine our nations' strengths."

It was amazing. I had been sent back to a medieval based video game for over a month, and this was one of the first signs I had seen of the forgotten traditions when women were basically cattle to be traded. I didn't try to hide my disapproving scowl.

"Screw that," I said. "You're going to be the next queen of Alexandria. You can change the laws."

"What?" Dagger said. "I can't just go and change the law _just because_ I'm the queen! That's an abuse of power!"

"Alright, you can change the law because you're going to be the queen _and _you're a summoner who can destroy an entire country in a matter of minutes."

Dagger sighed. "Trevor, that's not how politics work. You should know that if you're in the university."

"Know what else I learned?"

"What?"

"Countries are separated by cultures, customs and identities. Although Alexandria and Lindblum are on the same continent, they remain different countries for that reason. If you wanted to add one more difference, and a petty one at that, then it won't affect anything."

"But what about other countries? What would they say?"

"You mean a bunch of uptight twits whose rationale for being better than everyone else is because they say they are?"

Dagger didn't respond. She just looked at me, hoping I had an answer for her. I sighed and stood from the dock.

"Look, there's no reason that just because you're the queen, you shouldn't be happy. If you don't like the law, change it."

"But what if I can't?"

"Who's going to stop you? You've already changed the way you talk and the way you live. How many Alexandrian princesses have had combat experience in the past?"

"But…"

"Don't worry about it," I said, leaning my arm on her shoulder. "I'll do what I can to help you two stay together. You make a cute couple."

I could feel Dagger's body stiffen up. I took my arm away and headed towards the exit. "I'm heading to bed," I told her. "We can talk more later if you need it."

As I left, I heard her softly whisper, "Thank you."

I smiled. "Just make sure to knight me when you get the chance. 'Sir McEvoy' has a nice ring to it."

The stone staircase opened up to reveal an alleyway. It was a tight squeeze between some collapsing walls. It was no wonder why I could never find this in the game. I pushed myself along, moving slowly, and soon found myself along the main street of the town, close to the center plaza.

I glanced back down the alley briefly, hoping Dagger was going to be alright. She still had a long night ahead of her.

XXXXXXXX

I was actually having a good dream for a change. I was the mayor of some city made entirely out of pancakes. Buttery towers broke through the sky. Rivers of syrup flowed through the middle of town. Light, fluffy stores made of pancakes sold pancakes by the dozen. It was a fantastic change from the dreams about that damned house.

But like so many other times in my life, I couldn't enjoy myself for long. Just as I was about to devour half of the best city ever conceived, I was shaken awake. I saw Zidane standing over me, holding me by the shoulders.

"Trevor, wake up!"

I pulled his arms off of myself and looked at him groggily. "You have no idea how much I hate you right now."

"This is serious! Get up!"

I grunted and sat up in bed. I felt a chill and looked out the window. There's was barely any light out.

"What's going on?" I asked with a yawn.

"Dagger's missing!" he said. "She never came to dinner last night and she's not in her room!"

"What?" I jumped up and grabbed my shirt from the top of the bed. "Did she leave a note or something?"

"No, nothing."

I put my shirt on as we walked outside. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Yesterday, just after the fight," Zidane said. "She said she wanted to be alone. When she wasn't at dinner, I just thought she had already gone to bed."

I thought back for a moment. Did she get stuck down in the dock? It seemed like the last time anyone saw her.

"I think I might know where she is. Come on."

We ran as fast as we could towards the alley. It felt weird walking without my armor or gauntlets, but it made moving through the small corridor a lot easier.

"How did you find this place?" Zidane asked. "I don't really see you as the exploring type."

"I fell into the ocean and came in the other way. There's a dock below here."

"I see. I was going to say, you'd make a good thief, but never mind."

"Gee, thanks."

We squeezed through the last of the alley easily. I started down the stone staircase to the dock, but Zidane pushed himself ahead of me, taking the steps three or four at a time. We rounded the next corner and saw…

Nothing.

The dock was empty. No boat, no Dagger. There was only the sound of crashing waves.

"She's not here," Zidane said.

"And neither is the rowboat," I added.

"There was a boat here?"

"Yesterday, yeah."

Zidane took a few steps down the dock, gazing out to the sea. "Could she… Do you think she rode off on her own?"

"Not willingly," I said. "The current must have shifted and pulled her out."

"You mean she's out there alone?"

"It's our best bet."

"We need to get out there!" Zidane shouted. "Find Eiko! There has to be another boat around here!"

But, it turned out there wasn't. Eiko said the other boats had been lost in a storm ten years ago. We had to go with a backup plan of waking everyone up too early. Vivi and Zidane scoured the village for any supplies that would float while Eiko and I searched the ocean. She had some telescopes stashed away in a storehouse, which we were able to use. We stood outside her house, searching the water for any signs of the princess.

Eiko wasn't happy about the situation. Although, with the myriad of things going wrong, I wasn't sure what bothered her more. "How do you know she didn't just run off on her own? Maybe she got homesick."

"Dagger's a fugitive," I said. "If she goes home, she'll be arrested and possibly executed."

"Hmph. I don't see why I had to get up to help."

"Tell me… Are you more annoyed that you have to search for someone you don't like, or that you had to get up so early?"

"That's not true! It's not like I don't like Dagger or like I wanted something to happen."

"Then what? You act like anyone who distracts Zidane from you is a mortal enemy."

"It's not like that. It's just… things might be easier if she was out of the way."

I looked away from the telescope and glanced down at her. I had overheard enough bad anime clichés from my college roommate to know what was going on. "She's your romantic rival then?" I asked.

Eiko crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. "As long as I can get to Zidane, then I don't care what happens to her. But that doesn't mean I want her to die or get hurt. And you better not tell anyone about it or I'll summon Fenrir and have him eat you!"

"You're a devious little kid, you know that?"

"Guys!"

We turned and saw Zidane and Vivi running up, carrying only a torch. "Any luck?" Zidane asked.

"None," I said. "You?"

"Nothing. Everything here is either fused to the ground or made of rock."

Vivi took a step towards Eiko. "Eiko?" he asked. "Couldn't you summon that bird from yesterday? Maybe we could ride on his back and look for Dagger that way."

"That wouldn't work," she said. "Summoning magic takes a lot of magic. I can only bring creatures out for a few seconds."

"Then what else is there?" Zidane asked. "We can't sit around and do nothing!"

"A good leader remains calm in the worst situations," I told Zidane. "You won't be able to think clearly if you're riled up."

I gazed through the telescope again, focusing far into the distance. The sunrise reflected some of the water painfully, but looking through it, I could see a small black spot. Adjusting the focus slightly, I saw an orange leg inside it.

"Orange!" I said on instinct. "In a rowboat! Out that way!"

"Are you sure?" Zidane asked quickly.

"Quite. These telescopes are pretty good."

"Great job!" Zidane said, hopping onto the low wall overlooking the water. Without another word, he jumped in.

"That was not what I meant by thinking clearly!" I shouted at him.

Zidane was already busy swimming. "We don't have an alternative."

"But she's got to be 300 yards out there!"

"I'll make it! Have a blanket ready for her!"

"God damn stubborn idiot," I muttered under my breath. "Eiko, can you get a blanket and something warm to eat? Soup would be best."

"That's it?" she said, showing real concern. "But there has to be more I can do."

"Dagger's probably been out there all night. She'll be cold and hungry. Warm soup will be the best thing for her."

"Alright. If you say so." She dashed off back into her house to rouse the moogles to help her cook.

I picked up the torch that Zidane dropped when he jumped onto the ledge. The flame had gone out.

"Vivi, I need you to do two things," I said. "First, light this." I held the torch just in front of him. He wasted no time in charging a fire spell and setting the tip ablaze."

"What else?" he said hurriedly.

"I'll need you to stay here and signal Zidane with something. How far out do you think you can launch a fireball?"

"Um… I don't know. Pretty far, I guess?"

"Good." I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled as loud as I could into the sea. "ZIDANE! VIVI WILL SIGNAL YOU IF YOU'RE OFF COURSE! TURN BACK TO CHECK IF YOU'RE NOT SURE!"

He didn't signal back. I could only hope that he heard me.

I handed the telescope to Vivi. "Keep an eye on him and Dagger's boat. If he goes off course, then wait for him to turn around. Launch a fireball in the direction he needs to go, ok?"

"Okay," he said. He crawled up onto the wall and peered out through the telescope. "That's a neat trick though. Where'd you learn it?"

"From a book you probably never heard of." _Thank you R.A. Salvatore._ "I'll be in the dock if something happens."

I took the torch and ran down to the alley, dashing down the stone staircase and I stood at the dock. Even if Zidane found the boat safely, he would need a signal back to the village. I found a rest for the torch leaning against the wall. It seemed obvious enough of a signal. All I could do now was sit on the dock and wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

I watched the sun drift over the sky slowly reflecting on more of the water. I could hear Vivi launch a few fireballs. I was so worried about those two out there though. Zidane shouldn't have left like that before we properly set up some type of communication. For all I knew, he was swimming deeper into the ocean, further away from Dagger and the rest of us. I passed the time by thinking up new swear words to yell at him when he came back.

The sun dragged itself along overhead. It felt like noon crept along before I heard Vivi yell. It echoed horribly, so I couldn't understand him, but I stood up to look out into the water.

Finally, I could see the rowboat.

Zidane was leaning on the back of the boat, kicking weakly. It looked like he had been moving nonstop ever since he left. He panted hard and struggled to keep his head above the waves.

"Zidane!" I shouted. I tried to remember one of those new swear words, but they were lost to the relief I felt. By the time he made it into the dock, the waves were moving the boat faster than he was. He was so tired that he could barely even talk. I offered my hand and tried to pull him up, but with his water soaked clothes, he felt like he weighed a few hundred pounds. It was all I could do to drag him into the boat.

"Get… Dagger…" he panted. He looked like he was in pain, but we didn't have time to argue. I jumped into the boat and grabbed Dagger by the shoulders and knees. I gently carried her up and out of the boat.

"I'll come back for you," I said as I made my way out of the dock.

I carried Dagger up, through the small alleyway with plenty of difficulty. Vivi was waiting for me. "Is she—"

"She's fine," I said. "We just need to get her inside and warmed up."

Eiko was waiting inside her house with a blanket draped over a chair and a bowl of soup next to it on the table. I sat Dagger down gently and pulled the blanket over her.

"Try to wake her up," I said. I turned and ran out the door.

"Where are you going?" Vivi yelled after me.

"I have to get Zidane!"

Down in the docks, Zidane was barely getting out of the boat. He was still breathing hard and couldn't even stand.

"Idiot," I said as I kneeled down to help him up. "You can't even move."

"Had to… save her…" he panted.

I hooked Zidane's arm around my neck and lifted him so he could walk on his own. "Let's get you lying down somewhere," I said. "You need some rest."

"No," he shook his head. "Where's Dagger?"

"I dropped her off at Eiko's. She should be alright."

"Take me there."

I was starting to lose count how many times I had squeezed through the small alleyway up those stair, but I was getting tired of it. I pushed through too quickly and scratched myself on a nail jutting out from the wall. It made me cry out in pain and fall. Zidane landed on top of me.

"Dammit," I muttered. I struggled to pick myself and Zidane up again.

"You alright?" Zidane asked.

"Just scratched myself," I said, pulling his arm around me. "It's nothing."

"Keep going…" he said. "I'll be fine…"

"Forget it," I said, practically dragging him. "Do you have to be so heavy?"

"Don't blame me… I soaked up… a lot of water."

"Because you jumped in too damn early. Now we're hours behind schedule. We should have been at the Iifa Tree by now to wait for Kuja."

"We'll leave when… Dagger wakes up."

"No, we'll leave when you both have gotten some rest. It's a two hour walk there, remember?"

"We don't… have time—"

"No we don't, which is why you're going to rest up and stop fighting me on this. Trust me, I know what's going on."

I just hoped we wouldn't miss the big finale at the tree. If we were lucky, Kuja hadn't made his move yet.

Dagger looked up at us as we reached Eiko's house. She was still wearing the blanket and had eaten some of the soup.

"Dagger!" Zidane said excitedly. He overexerted himself and threw into a coughing fit.

"Careful you," I said, seating him on a couch. He tried to get up, but I forced him to lie down, ignoring the possible misconceptions that doing so could spew forth.

I looked around and noticed someone missing. "Where's Vivi?"

"He's sleeping," Eiko said. "He seemed really tired, so I thought he should get some rest."

"Good idea."

"Um, everyone?" Dagger said. "I think I should explain what happened."

"Yeah," I said. "Why were you out there alone?"

"After Trevor found me there, he left and the boat just started to float into the ocean."

"Wasn't the boat tied to the dock?" I asked.

"I must've slipped it off accidentally at some time. I can't remember. But after that, I couldn't fight the current and I was washed out to sea. Then, I heard Eiko singing the song I sing sometimes, and I must have fainted."

I took a breath in sharply. Thoughts raced around in my head for a moment, asking why this happened and why Zidane wasn't down in the dock to save her earlier like he was supposed to. It all came to one conclusion though. Dagger was happy when I left. She was happy and didn't sing her song, so Zidane couldn't hear her, so when the boat drifted out, she was all alone. It was my fault this happened. I sat down next to Zidane, angry that I caused something so stupid.

"I have no memory of my early childhood," Dagger said again. "I never really thought about it. Besides, nobody ever told me. I was raised in Alexandria...but only from the age of six or so."

"Six!" Zidane said, getting his energy back. "So where you were you till then?"

"Until then…" Dagger struggled to continue. "Until I turned six… I must have been here, in Madain Sari. I still can't remember everything. Some things are like they're shrouded in fog. But I do remember one thing… About ten years ago, an unbelievably huge hurricane hit this village. That's as far as I remember. That day, I…I was with my true mother on a little boat, far from the village. There's a cove behind Eiko's house, right? The boat I was on was just like the one there. It all came back to me when I heard that song on the boat."

"That song is from Madain Sari!" Zidane realized. That's why nobody else knows it."

Eiko shook her head in confusion and let forth a barrage of questions. "How did you get to Alexandria? How come you got to be a princess? How come you don't have a summoner's horn?"

"I don't know," Dagger said, thankfully cutting Eiko off. "But maybe Doctor Tot can tell me. About the lady who protected me from the storm as the boat lurched about in the waves… My biological mother, who died on that boat."

Zidane whispered to me as he realized Dagger's sad irony. "The woman she thought was her mother was someone else, and her true mother was already dead… Dagger has lost two mothers."

"Something you'll need to protect her from," I whispered back. "Wouldn't you say?"

Zidane rolled his eyes uncomfortably.

"I used to pray at the Eidolon Wall every day," Dagger said.

"You, too?" Eiko shouted.

"You pray there, too, Eiko? I'm so happy I remembered."

Eiko gave Dagger a big smile and hugged her around the waist. "Dagger! Welcome home!"

Dagger giggled and returned the hug. "So glad to be back."

It was a sweet scene until Eiko burst out laughing. We all looked at her curiously.

"I just realized that I'm not alone anymore!" Eiko said. "Yep, I made up my mind! Zidane, Dagger, I'm going with you! I'll be breaking my promise to my grandpa, but I wanna go! Besides, grandpa always told me to be honest with myself!"

"Breaking her promise?" I asked Zidane.

"When her grandpa died, she promised to stay in the village until she was 16."

"I don't know what the future holds," Dagger said. "But I want to finish what I came here for."

"Come on, Dagger," Eiko said, practically jumping. "Let's go pray together!"

"Alright!"

"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked. "You should probably rest."

"I'm fine," Dagger said. "Eiko's soup really helped me feel better."

"Come on!" Eiko said impatiently. She led Dagger by the hand outside and the two of them raced to the Eidolon Wall.

"Well, those two are getting along much better," I said. "You'd think they were sisters or something."

"Maybe," Zidane said as he sat up. "While they pray, we should get some supplies together for the trip."

"No, _I_ should get some supplies. You should rest."

"Really Trevor, I'm fine. I'm feeling better already."

"Just sleep for a while. An hour or two. That's all. Then we can leave for the Iifa Tree."

Zidane grunted. "Fine. I guess I could use a small nap."

"Good," I said. I stood and headed for the door. "The moogles should be enough help to get some food together. I'll just find them and ask…"

I stopped talking as I reached the doorway. There, in front of me, was a gargantuan man who stood a good two feet over me.

Amarant, the bounty hunter and criminal from Treno. The man Zidane fought yesterday. He wasted no time in walking inside. And that meant batting me away like a fly. I flew through the air and crashed into the far wall.

Zidane shot up like a bullet. "Trevor!"

Amarant walked in, slowly and commanding. He turned and faced Zidane silently.

"What now?" Zidane demanded. "You want some more, eh?"

"The victor lives, the defeated die." Amarant said in his deep voice. "You know the rules. Your actions yesterday were incomprehensible to me. Tell me! Why didn't you kill me!"

"Well… that's a tough question…" Zidane said. He seemed calm and didn't ready his weapons. "Are you really that unhappy that I let you live?"

"I'd rather die as a warrior than live as a beggar."

"Fine. Then come with me."

"Are you insane?" I asked. I knew it was a good idea to bring Amarant, but I wasn't in a very good mood after getting knocked into a wall.

"What are you after?" Amarant asked.

"Follow me and maybe you'll understand. Besides, you're pretty good in a fight. We could use someone like you. We're hunting a man down."

Amarant only grunted and muttered something to himself.

"Huh? You say something'?"

"Very well," he agreed. "I'll find out what makes you so strong."

"What's your name?"

Amarant just brushed the question off. "Call me what you will."

"Hmm… Lani called you 'Red,' right?"

"Some call me the Flaming Amarant."

"Fine. We'll call you Amarant," Zidane grinned. "The more the merrier."

"You know the girls aren't going to be happy about this, right?" I asked. "And neither am I." Never one to get pushed around, I stood face to face with Amarant. "I'll put up with this for now, but try knocking me through another wall and I'll cut your arm off."

"Still not a fan of walls?" Zidane joked. My guess was he was trying to alleviate the situation.

"Not as long as they're there for me to run into. I'm going to keep looking for some supplies."

As I walked outside, I looked at the shadows on the ground. They were short and close to the buildings they came from. It was probably just one in the afternoon.

I looked to the east, towards the Iifa tree. I could see the very top sticking up above the mountain pass. I just hoped we wouldn't be too late to miss Kuja.


	24. Brahne's Last Stand

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author's notes: Sorry guys. Big speech time again, but this is kind of a big deal for me. ^^

First and foremost, sorry about the delay.

As many of you have noticed, I like to update Shattered Mind on or around the 9th of every month (the publicity writes itself). However, a few things have happened this month to delay me. 1) I have a new GF. She's great, she's fun, and she's hot. XD 2) I've actually found employment. My schedule is a bit erratic since I've been getting my assignments about a day in advance, but it's fun and the pay's great. 3) There's been some in-house drama as of late. My "step-mother" has recently decided to violate my very simple rule of "Don't touch my stuff" again, and has thrown away several toys from my childhood in an attempt to clear space in the basement. Toys with deep sentimental value to me, and toys that I planned on passing on to my kids should I ever have any. While normally I try to ignore people who annoy me, doing something like this, despite hundreds of warnings not to, is almost criminal. So, if you're so inclined at the end of the chapter, please give a special "F U Suzie!" in your reviews so my "step-mother" might figure out that she should stop being such a bitch.

Ok, ranting's over. Now for the real speech. :D

I never really thought I'd get this far when I started writing Shattered Mind. I just wrote a couple of chapters early to see if I could stand such a big project. I had seen so many people before me try and fail that it seemed an impossible task. It turns out, Shattered Mind has become a huge influence in my life since then.

When I started writing, I was a psych major in college, subject to too much homework, bastard professors, and a search engine for science journals so difficult to use that would make a Tibetan monk go into a murderous rampage. By then, Shattered Mind was already gaining some popularity, so I took that, and my appreciation for the classics (The Aeneid, The Iliad, Goethe's Faust), and transferred to an English Major.

But that wasn't all. Like Trevor, I used to be a real rageholic. I would have days in which everything just pissed me off for no particular reason. Call it a chemical imbalance in my head or the fact that I was just an angry person, but I find it miraculous that I never assaulted anyone.

As I wrote, Shattered Mind became a way for me to channel my energy. I became calmer and more collected. These days, I'm far more prone to laughing and finding whatever good angle I can in anything presented to me, rather than holding back the urge to break anything I don't like.

But on a lighter subject, we can all celebrate my getting halfway through the storyline. Something that very, very few people have reached before in any fandom *High-fives Duelist of the Dawn*.

Ultimately, I want to thank everyone who reads Shattered Mind, and especially the people who review. This story, and my attempts at writing my novels, would be nothing without your constant support. XD

So, as I slowly progress with my novels and short stories, I may take a short break from Shattered Mind (a brief one mind you), to prepare myself for the 3rd book in this installation. There will be another teaser released (even better than the last one) in about a month or so just so you all know that I haven't forgotten about you all.

But for now, we get to see exactly how Kuja's plans will lay out, how Brahne's forces will intervene, how the world heroes can stop them both, and how Trevor and Kaiten will strive to survive in the battle between these titan forces…

Enjoy!

-Krimson

Chapter 23- Brahne's Last Stand.

XXXXXXXX

We had finally advanced. Our band of foolish heroes facing a fight we couldn't possibly win.

Just another day in Gaia.

We had reached the Iifa Tree late in the afternoon. The sun hadn't quite set. It seemed to hang in the sky as if to watch the upcoming chaos.

Amarant had "offered" to carry our supplies, which wasn't a big deal since we were able to fit everything into a single backpack. I was walking along begrudgingly. The moogles had found a spare weapon in the village to replace Crimson and Azure, but it was the Exploda. It was an ugly weapon that was composed almost entirely of segmented guthooks. I never liked it in the game, but because it didn't have any cross guards, I had to carry them by hand. After a while, my hands started to heat up and became pretty sweaty. I tried my best to ignore it

"There's still a little Mist," Zidane pointed out. "But at least there's no more coming out. That must mean Kuja isn't here yet."

"And what happened to the Mist?" Amarant asked.

"We beat the beast that breathes it," Eiko said proudly. "So much for the _Mist_ Continent!"

"_You_ set it on fire," I corrected. "_I_ beat it."

"Yeah, after you went completely psycho!"

"No more Mist?" Amarant wondered. I saw him look at me through his dreadlocks. I tried not to pay any attention to him.

"Zidane, up there!" Dagger said, pointing to the sky. "There's a silver dragon!"

Far above us, hundreds of feet in the sky, was an immense silver dragon. It soared through the air, occasionally flapping its wings like it was out for a Sunday glide.

"It's him!" Zidane said. "He flew from the ruins of Burmecia riding a silver dragon! It's gotta be Kuja, and he's riding that dragon!"

Everyone gazed upwards as the dragon let out a roar and flew towards the Iifa Tree.

XXXXXXXX

Kuja rode the silver dragon, standing on it's back proudly and confidently. The silver haired thespian laughed as he gazed over the horizon. He originally came to investigate the disturbance at the Iifa tree, but now spotted a more alluring target sailing in from the west.

Nine of the mightiest ships in Alexandria's Navy sat in anchor, looking onward at the Iifa Tree. Brahne's act of defiance simply amused Kuja.

"Oh, how I've longed for this day," Kuja mused. "The day I might finally cast away this mask to reveal my true self. It no longer matters if the Iifa Tree is liberated! It means nothing to me!"

Kuja broke into a sick cackle. Zidane and his group thought they had ruined his plans by cutting off the flow of mist. Hardly the case at all. He reveled in his superiority, wishing desperately that the anticipation would cease. The suspense, the gloating he could do… it was all too much! He took a breath to calm himself. After all, a great play required a tremendous climax!

"The tree is so beautiful! Its beauty becomes the great mother tree that lives among the stars! Silver dragon, let us watch the drama unfold from the trunk of Iifa. No one shall interrupt us there."

The silver dragon roared in understanding and began to descend into the trunk.

XXXXXXXX

We were already in hot pursuit of Kuja. We didn't see exactly where he landed, but it was further up the trunk than we went before. We had to run towards the tree, but took a root that branched away, leading around the trunk instead of inside it. There was no way to reach Kuja from the inside.

Zidane was in the lead, with the girls right behind him. Vivi was next, and I stayed back to keep an eye on Amarant. He probably wasn't going to try anything, but I still didn't trust him.

Suddenly, Zidane stopped. He looked up at the trunk, then at the route ahead of us, then at the trunk again. "We'll pass him if we go any farther," he said. "Kuja went up there."

The trunk was only a few feet away form the root we were standing on. It wasn't much of a jump, but the climb would be a little more daunting.

"Hey, Zidane," Eiko asked. "How are we gonna get up there?"

"Can't we climb there?" he suggested.

"Not me!"

"M-Me neither," Vivi chimed in.

"I don't think I can, either," Dagger admitted.

Zidane crossed his arms in frustration. "We came all this way. Now what?"

"What's the problem?" Amarant said. "You should just go by yourself!"

Zidane just shook his head. "No. We gotta go face Kuja together."

Amarant grumbled. I could hear him mutter, "How did this wimp end up beating me?"

Amarant decided to confront Zidane, pushing everyone in his way aside, including myself. I gasped as I reached for something to hold on to. There was a good hundred feet of air between the ground and myself. I clung to some grass growing on the root and pulled myself back to my feet. I could see that Vivi and the girls had to do the same.

"Watch it asshole!" I yelled.

"Hey, Amarant! Watch where you're walking!" Zidane yelled.

"You almost knocked me down!" Eiko yelled.

Amarant just ignored all of it. "'He who hesitates is lost'," he said, poking Zidane in the chest to stress his point. "You'd best remember that."

"Well, I prefer 'My way or the highway.'"

"Whatever. Like you actually have a plan."

"Oh yeah, smarty-pants!" Eiko said. "Don't forget you're the one who lost to Zidane."

"Shut up, brat," Amarant growled.

"Anything is better than 'charge in blindly and get our asses kicked'," I chimed in. Amarant just growled at me.

"A plan, huh?" Zidane crossed his arms in thought for a moment. "That's right, Amarant! You owe me one, remember? It's payback time!"

Amarant grumbled something under his breath again. My guess was that he was swearing.

"There's some gargant grass around here, so a gargant can't be far," Zidane said. "I want you to catch one for me. Then we can all get on and ride it to the top."

"Why should I do that when I can just take the kids up myself?"

"Huh…?"

"How'd I ever let this dimwit beat me?"

Before anyone could object, Amarant turned around and grabbed Eiko and Vivi and threw them over his shoulders. They grabbed hold tightly as the bandit took a running jump and leapt off the root. Eiko and Vivi shrieked out of fear, but held on to Amarant as tightly as they could. The red haired bandit dug his gauntlets into the trunk walls and climbed up the side easily.

"He sure has spirit," Zidane said, looking over the edge.

I disagreed. "Or he's insane."

"Nothing left to do but to follow him." Zidane backed up from the edge and grabbed Dagger by the hand. "Alright, Dagger… I'll just carry you piggyback."

"Huh?" Dagger said. She tried to pull away, but to no avail. "Hey! Zidane! Wait just a—"

Zidane pulled Dagger closer and threw her over his shoulders. She grabbed his neck tightly and wrapped a leg around his waist, burying her head in his shoulder.

"Trevor, can you get up there by yourself?" Zidane asked.

"I think I can manage," I said. "I'll follow once you get a good start."

"Alright. Good luck." Zidane got a short running start and leapt towards the trunk. He grabbed a vine and was able to pull himself up while Dagger held on for dear life.

_Kaiten, I think this is your expertise._ I said. _Can you handle this kind of a climb?_

"_I always preferred free running, not free climbing,_" Kaiten corrected me. "_But, yeah, I think I can handle something like this._"

_Alright. You're up._

A sense of numbness flowed over my body like a blooming flower. I knelt to prevent falling off the root, but as soon as my knee touched down, Kaiten had already taken total control over my body. He stood and took a deep breath.

"Today is going to be a good day," he said. He took a running start and charged off the root. He gripped a vine hanging off of the trunk and landed against the side. He began climbing after the others with a grin on his face.

XXXXXXXX

Kuja stood proudly on the trunk, overlooking the Alexandrians below. He smirked excitedly as his loyal silver dragon sat next to him.

"The weak lose their freedom to the strong," Kuja said. "Such is the way of the strong. And it is the providence of nature that only the strong survive. That is why I needed strength. I learned of power that would daunt even _him_ over ten years ago. Such a long time… Now my forces are ready to strike! Ahh… The suspense is terrible!"

A quick dash of movement caught Kuja's attention out of the corner of his eye. Lower on the trunk, Kuja saw several climbers. His first thought was that they were scouts of Brahne's, but another glance made Kuja realize that this group had nothing to do with Brahne. Nothing at all. He grinned when he saw the boy with the monkey's tail pulling himself up onto another root.

"So they've come this far, have they? Perfect. I'll warm up to them until the elephant-lady is ready."

XXXXXXXX

The climb went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Kaiten had no trouble scaling the dry trunk. He had pulled out one of the Exploda blades to use as a grip, but that was all he needed. We made the fifty-foot ascent in only a few minutes. When we got to the top, Zidane offered us a hand up.

"Thanks," Kaiten said.

"Of course," Zidane said. "How's everyone feeling?"

"Motion sick," Dagger said.

"Shaking," Vivi answered.

Eiko was red with rage and leered at Amarant. "If you do that again I will kick your butt!"

_Someone should teach that girl how to swear,_ Kaiten remarked.

"Thanks, Amarant," Zidane said genuinely.

Amarant paid it no mind. "Now we're even," he said. "Show me what you guys can do."

Suddenly, Dagger yelled, "There's Kuja!"

We all looked up. There, a short walk away, was Kuja. He seemed more interested in the flotilla sailing in from the west, but he offered us a confident glance, as if daring us to face him.

Vivi shook, but whether it was from fear or rage I couldn't tell. "Kuja… Maker of black mages."

"Any enemy of Zidane is an enemy of mine!" Eiko shouted.

Zidane nodded at us and took point. "Okay, let's go!" He led the way towards the white-haired madman.

_This might get bad,_ Kaiten said. _You take over. I'm going to meditate and gather strength in case we need it later on._

"_Sounds good,_" I said. "_I'll call you if I need you._"

I felt my body reawaken as the nerves reacted to the touch of the air. I fell to one knee as the sensation overtook me.

"Trevor," Zidane called back. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Just a little winded from the climb. Let's keep going."

The walk up the root was unsettling. Kuja kept his eyes fixated on us as we took each step. The others didn't know how insanely strong he was, but I knew Kuja could have killed us a thousand times as we approached him.

His long white hair looked like it was made up of thousands of feathers. It flowed down his back, covering it like a blanket. Most of his clothes looked very regal and expensive. He wore long, flowing cloths for sleeves and a dress while he sported a purple battle plate on his chest. Most noticeable, at least to me as I tried to keep my lunch down, was the thin leggings he wore that made him look like he was wearing a thong. The rest of his clothes, what little he wore, were straps holding everything together. He was like a clown imitating the aristocracy.

Kuja stood unflinching as we finally got close enough to talk to him. He was standing on another root parallel to ours, but the gap was too wide to jump across. We stood across from him as Dagger stepped forward to speak.

"You are Kuja, correct?" Dagger asked. Kuja didn't answer. There was a long, uncomfortable silence before Dagger spoke again. "My name is Princess Garnet Til Alexandros. I wish to ask you something. Was it really you who persuaded my mother to start the war—"

"The war that threw the entire Mist Continent into chaos?" Kuja finally said. He wore the cockiest grin I had ever seen as he spoke.

"And…" Vivi started to say. "And you made everyone…the black mages…into instruments of war!"

"Oh, dear," Kuja said in false concern. "The princess has such a bloodthirsty little puppet. I don't have the power to do such a thing. I just gave them a little recipe. Begin with broth of mist, and fermented souls, and boil. Then, pour genuine black magic into a mixing bowl and heat to—"

"Stop it!" Vivi shouted.

I could feel myself getting pissed off already. No one toyed with Vivi and got away with it. I gripped my swords in anger and felt the Chi start to burn inside my chest.

But Kuja wasn't finished. "I'm not done telling how to make soulless toys out of the dregs of souls!"

"Dregs of souls?" Zidane asked. "You mean mist!"

I could see Vivi trying to be strong, but he clenched his hat and pulled it over his face. His voice became choked in his throat as he tried to scream in outrage. I thought I saw a tear on his cheek out of the corner of his eye.

"First, you don't want to listen, now you start asking questions? Oh, brother." Kuja placed the back of his hand to his forehead and arched his back in pure melodramatic fashion. "But you're not ready yet!"

"Enough!" I yelled. Kuja may have been amusing and interesting in the game, but person-to-person, he was just snotty and irritating. I held my swords forward and charged them up. "I'm not taking this kind of shit from some thong-wearing freak!"

Kuja blinked as if in disbelief for a moment before he responded. "You're certainly an obnoxious little twit, aren't you?

"Oh? Did I hit a nerve?" I asked. "Thong boy!"

"I will take great pleasure in slowly destroying—"

"THOOOOONG!"

Kuja was no longer amused. His cocky grin was replaced with a pissed off sneer. He waved his hand, as if to dismiss me. "I tire of this silliness. I shall kill the queen and every last one of her minions, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it."

Dagger's teeth ground together audibly. "Why, you… don't you feel anything! Taking the lives of so many…"

"Spare me the lecture," Kuja ordered. "Lives come and go all the time. What's the big deal?" I saw a smile on the corner of Kuja's lips as his mood changed again. "Speaking of warmongers, why… what about that mother of yours, Princess? She said she won't feel alive until she has everything! It breaks my heart to see such greed! The war was my fault? No, no! Your mother wanted it! All I did was give her a little push!"

"Liar!" Dagger cried out. "My mother was sweet and kind. You changed her!"

"Don't get angry!" I told Dagger, despite my earlier moment of hypocrisy. "That just gives him control."

"Mwahaha… So the curtain rises!" Kuja declared. He stepped onto the silver dragon for a more glorious image. "Perfect, my canary. Let me show you the truth about your mother! First Act: The End of Ugly Desire. It's show time!"

Kuja spanned his hands out to the sea. There, finally in range of the beaches was the Alexandrian Navy. Nine of the most powerful naval battleships in the world still operating encroached along the beaches. Each one was easily half the size of a modern aircraft carrier and looked just as heavily armed. Massive cannons flanked every side of the ship, ready to launch cannonballs the size of a large child.

Soldiers and black mages alike jumped ashore and waited in formation while many more remained on the ships. If I didn't know what was about to happen, I would have been intimidated by the show of force.

This was going to be a horrible massacre…

XXXXXXXX

Far below the Iifa Tree, on the Alexandrian flagship _Lunar Light_, Queen Brahne fanned herself while looking over her military unfolding before her eyes from her private command booth at the top of _Lunar Light_. She watched them with avarice, drinking in the rush of power it gave her. She alone had defeated every country on her continent. She had demolished Burmecia in less than a week, Cleyra in less than a day, and Lindblum in less than an hour.

Kuja, that insufferable man, didn't stand a chance by himself.

"Your highness!" a scout said as she ran to the queen. "We've spotted the arms dealer high in that tree ahead of us."

The scout handed over a telescope. Brahne looked through it and, sure enough, there Kuja was, high above them on that feminine-looking dragon of his.

"Bwahahaha!" Brahne belted out. "Kuja! So you finally decided to show your girly face here! You're all that stands between me and total domination! Once you die, I will be the only one capable of controlling the Eidolons and making black mage soldiers!"

Brahne washed her hand over her face, drunk with power. "Gehehe! But I haven't forgotten all you've done for me! In return, I will show you the ultimate power!"

She leaned to the soldiers on the lower decks. "Attention, all hands! Order the black mages to focus all their magical energies into a single spell! Lay suppressing fire upon Kuja until the casting is finished! Fire! Fire at will!"

The soldiers below saluted their queen and moved out to carry out her orders. The forces on the beaches moved towards the massive tree while the black mages still on deck began to focus their magic into larger, vastly more powerful attacks.

The black mages may not have shown any emotion, but the soldiers smiled at their massive superiority. They knew full well that Kuja was history.

XXXXXXXX

We watched as Brahne's forces filled out onto the beaches. The bright red sails were easy to spot in the distance, as were the massive armaments. Their forces crawled onto the beach, unknowing just how doomed they all were.

"I...I can't believe it!" Dagger gasped.

"Your mother isn't satisfied with just one continent!" Kuja taunted. "Her ugliness and stupidity are truly impressive. Ahh... everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

Zidane turned and brought out his thief blades. "What are you talking about!"

"You're just the opening number. Time for the real show!"

"We won't let you get away!"

Confident in his overwhelming advantage over us, Kuja just laughed. "The mist may be created no more, but it still lurks in the caves and forests, right?"

"What?"

"I can make monsters with magic!" Kuja raised his arms and briefly channeled a spell. "Come forth, spawn of the mist!"

The next thing any of us knew, there was a loud roar coming from the alcove down the root next to us. Kuja quickly took off as a pair of demonic bugs the size of a trailer walked out into the open. Their heavily armored bodies shined in the light and they breathed mist. They looked like giant, more-hideous-than-usual-centipedes, but all of their legs were in front of them, beneath their vertically gaping mouths.

"Oh god," I breathed. "They just had to be bugs, didn't they?"

"Charge them!" Zidane yelled. He rushed one of the mistodons and fought it back into the alcove. "We don't stand a chance on the root. Fight them in here!"

"And here I was thinking we could fight the big man himself," Amarant huffed. He pulled back an arm and uppercut the second giant bug, knocking it back beside the first.

I gathered my wits, trying to assure myself that the mistodons wouldn't try to burrow in my hair. They would probably rip me apart, then eat me. That was a much better alternative.

Zidane was soon busy fending off the first monster as it swiped at him with its ten frontal legs. He had trouble since the attacks came quick and often. The second tried the same with Amarant, but he was able to grab the legs one by one and break them over his own leg. The monster retracted the broken appendages and tried a counterattack.

"He doesn't need help," I decided. I charged up one of my Exploda blades and ran in to give Zidane some back up.

Zidane saw me coming and tried to turn the enormous beast. He deflected blow after blow harmlessly, but his Ogre dropped faster each time. I knew he couldn't keep it up much longer.

With the mistodon angled for me, I was able to ignore its creepy-ass face and jump right onto its back. I swung a blade right for its side, hoping for a very loud crunch.

Instead, there was a dull thud.

My sword didn't have much of an impact at all. The armor was too thick on its sides. Whatever Kuja had done to make these things, he had thought it through.

Whatever the case, I had spent too much time on the beast's back. It rolled its spines rapidly, causing me to lose my balance. I fell to one side and quickly climbed back to my feet.

"_Try a Pulse!_" Kaiten yelled. "_It should be enough to break through its skin!_"

_That would work,_ I started to say. _If the mistodon hadn't noticed us._

With a bat of its leg, the mistodon threw Zidane away. It started towards me, mist foaming out of its mouth like a bad case of rabies. It raised its legs to stomp on me, only to land on my swords. I was still dropped to one knee, but at least I wasn't hurt for the moment.

"_Try it now! He can't stop you!_"

_We'd die,_ I informed my counterpart. The crushing force of the monster was more than I thought it would be, so I struggled to stay upright. _Tips are near my head. If I use Pulse, I'd cut my head in two._

"_Well we're all kinds of screwed, huh?_"

_Yup._

I had no way out. With four legs pressing down on me and another six ready to gouge me in the off chance I escaped, I had very few options. I was able to look up enough to see a drop of spit come from the monster's mouth and land right next to my leg. As if getting crushed wasn't bad enough, now I was getting drooled on.

"Trevor!"

I didn't have a chance to turn and see, but a second later, a flash of lightning sparked over me and into the mistodon's gaping mouth. It spasmed for a few seconds, giving me ample time to break away.

"Thanks Vivi," I said. "Nice timing as always."

"You're welcome," he said. He stood behind me and focused his magic.

The mistodon stopped its thrashing at last. It shook its head left to right, most likely looking for me or Vivi. When it finally settled down and saw us, it growled. It started to charge, but then it noticed that my sword was pointed right between its legs.

"Pulse."

A purple ring of pure energy flashed out of my sword's tip. It broke through the monster's legs like they were paper. Four of them fell limply to the ground. The mistodon didn't have time to scream when I shoved my other sword down its gullet and powered up an Explosion inside its throat. The beast's head blew up, showering us in blood and gore, as it settled to the ground and remained motionless.

"One down!" I yelled over the sounds of distant battle.

"Make that two," Zidane said. He leapt off the second monster, daggers drenched in blood. Amarant was busy wiping his soaking arms dry. A pool of red built up beneath him. Every one of the second mistodon's legs were broken and snapped open.

I had to remember that Amarant could be scary in battle.

"Where are the girls?" Zidane asked. I glanced around, but I didn't see them.

"Zidane!" came a voice from outside the alcove. We ran out and saw Eiko trying to comfort Dagger out on the root. The princess had fallen to her knees watching the battle at the bottom of the tree.

"This is horrible…" Dagger said softly.

Far below, Alexandria's forces had been engaged in battle. Just like with us, Kuja had created a legion of mistodons. They covered the beaches like a black scar. The ground forces were scattered all over the place and could barely maintain formation. What little support the beaches could get from the battleships artillery didn't have much effect on the monsters. In the few cases that their cannonballs actually hit, they only kicked up sand and dazed one of the monsters for a moment. It was like the mistodons were designed with cannon fire in mind.

Amarant crossed his arms as he watched. "So, two of your enemies are dukin' it out? Why not leave 'em, and finish off the winner? My money's on Kuja."

"Amarant's right," Zidane said. "Let's split before we get dragged in."

The idea sounded good. We all grabbed our things, but Dagger remained standing still.

"No… I can't…" she said. "I can't let anything happen to my mother."

"Dagger?"

"Zidane, I… I have to save her!"

"Uhh, Dagger? She extracted eidolons from you and started a war!"

"I still don't want her to die!"

"But she didn't care one bit whether you lived or died! You don't have to call her mother anymore!"

"She's my only mother! I don't care if you don't understand! Eiko, you said that there was an eidolon imprisoned near here, right?"

Eiko blinked for a moment. "Uh, yeah."

Dagger knelt down and grabbed the little girl by the shoulders. "Please! Tell me where!"

"It's a long way down," Eiko said, pointing down the root. "You see the place with lots of roots? The place that kinda looks like a platform? That's it."

"There. I see it," Dagger said. Dagger took off running as quickly as she could down the root.

"Dagger, don't go alone!" Eiko yelled. But the determined princess ignored her. She was already starting to fade into the distance.

Amarant just leaned against a wall and laughed. "This is turning into quite a show."

"Anyone can get emotional at a time like this!" Eiko defended. "Give her a break!"

"There might be more mist monsters around," I said. "She's in more danger if she's alone."

"Yeah," Zidane agreed. "Let's go after her."

"Better move fast," Amarant said. "More of those things are headed here."

There was a root reaching the other side of the alcove, rising from the ground near the beaches. Several mistodons were climbing up, towards the alcove and towards us. Considering how hard it was to kill two, fighting half a dozen at once really didn't appeal to me.

"Run guys!" Zidane ordered. "Get away before they can reach us!"

He didn't have to speak twice. We all took off as quickly as we could. The narrow root made moving difficult. In his concern for Dagger, Zidane took an early lead. Amarant and I were stuck behind the kids and their short legs. I was in such a rush to outrun the mist monsters behind us that I almost considered running ahead of them to get out of the way.

"_This isn't good,_" Kaiten was quick to point out. "_They're going to catch us at this rate._"

_Any suggestions?_

"_I can use Fin and slice them right down the middle. I'll just need to take over._"

_No good. We can't change at this speed. We'll probably trip again._

"_Fine. But there is something else you can do,_" Kaiten said solemnly. "_You're going to have to blow up the root._"

_While we're ON IT?_

"_It's that or the mist monsters will overtake us. And we both know that they would knock you right off the root if you tried to fight them._"

I didn't want to admit it, but Kaiten was right. The root was too small to fight on. The mistodons had their entire bodies to help keep them on. Was that why Kuja designed them the way he did? Whatever the reason, fighting head to head wasn't the answer. But we had been running for almost a minute and we still weren't halfway down the root. If I broke it here, the others might be able to hang on.

I finally made my decision when the first mistodon crested over the top of the root where we began our run. It bolted down, running at us at twice our speed. Several more came into place right behind it.

_I really hope this doesn't get us killed._

"_You've got this,_" Kaiten assured me. "_Just stay aware of your surroundings._"

There was a clump of vines beside me. There was a horde of monsters behind me. I took a deep breath and began to slow my run.

"Amarant," I said. "I'm going to need your help."

"Not now," he said. "Those things will catch up any second."

"Not if I do this! Just hang back for ten seconds!"

"What the hell are you—!"

I didn't answer. We didn't have time. Instead, I grabbed the nearest vine that I could and swung around it. I realized as I fell that I didn't test to see if it could hold me. I was amazingly relieved when it didn't snap under my weight.

"_Faster!_" Kaiten yelled. "_We don't have much time!_"

"Fine, shuddap!" I barked out. I held out one of my swords and charged up an Explosion. I climbed up the vine fast as I could and swung into the underside of the root. Chunks of wood and splinters fell as saw dust and smoke rose. I was able to cut through the vine without any resistance.

_I think I got it!_ I said. _A little more and—_

Snap!

It didn't take long for the first signs of stress to echo through the air. I could already see the wood of the root beginning to warp.

"_Time to move!_"

_Not yet. I almost got it!_

With one more swing, the tip of my sword exploded. The root snapped again. It began to give way and cave in on itself. I could feel myself falling as I clung to the vine for dear life.

"_What are you doing? MOVE!_"

I started to ascend as fast as I could, but the wood was bending too much. For every inch I climbed, the root fell another four inches. I looked down and saw the three hundred foot drop below me and wondered why I ever did something so idiotically reckless.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp tug at the vine. I was launched a good few feet up at once. A glance up showed me Amarant pulling at the vine. I was so relieved when he gave another sharp pull, strong enough for me to reach the top of the root. I grabbed at some gargant grass and yanked myself up.

"Thanks Amarant," I said. I was honestly amazed that he had stuck around to help.

Amarant just grunted. "Whatever. Keep running."

I looked behind myself. The root that once held a sharp angle down was now starting to bend the other way. I could see the mistodons coming closer from the top. The root probably wouldn't support their weight and would snap under the pressure. I didn't want to be anywhere near them when that happened.

Amarant had already taken off. I chased after him, running as quickly as I could. I was lucky that my legs weren't tired from the climb just now.

"Where are the others?" I shouted as we ran. "They didn't fall, did they?"

"Down there!" Amarant yelled. He pointed to the platform at the bottom of the root. Zidane and the kids had made it safely down. Meanwhile, I could see Dagger praying in front of a statue of a serpent. Amarant and I had only just reached the halfway point in our run.

"Is that trap going to stop them?" Amarant asked.

"It should," I said. "Just keep—"

There was a loud groan of wood that groaned behind us. I looked back and saw the mistodons marching over weakened wood. The root bent as the second one walked over it. The weight quickly became too much and it snapped with a tremendous crack. It sounded like a bolt of thunder had gone off next to us.

With its support gone, the root finally fell, taking the mist monsters with it. I would have been happy, except the root started to fall towards us as well.

"Shiiit!" I shouted. "Amarant, run! Go, go, go!"

"I know! Shut up!" he shouted back.

I could feel the root shaking as it fell lower. I would have laughed at being placed in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie, but I was too worried about falling to my death. There were no more vines along the root that I could see, so unless and airship came by to pick us up, we didn't have much of a chance. I could barely get a good grip under my feet and felt myself sliding down.

"Hang on!" Amarant called out. He reached out with one hand while he dug his clawed gauntlet deep into the root. I took hold of his wrist just as my feet fell out from underneath me. We were airborne for several seconds before the root crashed into the ground. The explosion rocked the root and the surrounding earth. It felt like I was riding in a bike accident while going head-on against an oil tanker.

When the shaking stopped, I could see the damage I had caused. The mistodons had fallen among the roots below and were out of sight, but the root I had destroyed had smashed through several other roots on their way down. Dust and remnant mist clouded the air.

"That was fun," I said.

"Hold on to me," Amarant said. "I'm going to climb up."

"Alright," I said. I reached out and grabbed onto his shoulders, awkwardly adjusting myself on top of his backpack. "Thanks for the help."

"I'm not doing it to help you," he said gruffly. "I need two hands to climb."

"Wow… How charismatic of you."

Amarant didn't seem to have any trouble climbing up the root. He went hand over hand up the remaining length until we saw the edge of the cliff. Zidane met us at the top and offered us a hand. I took it, simply glad to be on solid ground once again.

"That was insane," he said. "Trevor, the next time you want to kill yourself, please leave the rest of us out of it."

I just grinned idiotically. "Aww, but it's more fun as a group! Just think of all the insane cults we could start by modeling things like this."

Zidane offered a hand to Amarant too, but the stubborn bandit didn't take it. He just pulled himself up on his own.

"No!" Dagger suddenly cried out. She held herself tightly as she cupped a stone in her hand.

"Dagger! What's wrong?" Eiko asked. "Can't you free it?"

"No, I have it," Dagger said, holding up the aquamarine in her hands. "I sense it's a great eidolon. But… but…"

"I don't believe it!" Eiko said, examining the stone closer. "This is the legendary sea serpent, Leviathan!"

"Leviathan!" Vivi asked.

"An eidolon who wipes out its enemies with a huge tidal wave!" Eiko explained. Her expression dropped when she realized that using this eidolon would only kill Brahne. Not Kuja. "I'm sorry, Dagger!"

Dagger shook her head. "No, it's not your fault. But my mother's still in danger!"

Kuja was having the time of his life, finally getting a chance to flaunt his powers. His black mages were strong, but nothing compared to the mist monsters he could create. Of course he would never hand over his strongest card to a madwoman like Brahne! Kuja cackled to himself atop the silver dragon as they surveyed the battle below.

"Foolish Brahne!" Kuja laughed. "Your cannons are useless against the spawn of the Mist! Mwahaha... but even a fool like you knows that there is only one path you can take, right?"

Kuja had been waiting patiently for Brahne to use her trump card. The one attack that may have had a chance against Kuja and his forces, but after several minutes, the fat queen still hadn't used it. Kuja quickly grew bored of waiting.

"Stupid elephant-lady! Why do you hesitate? Very well… I'll make the first move. I'll give you a clean target. You can't miss! Silver Dragon, descend!"

Kuja smiled in excitement and looked up at his trap. A dark cloud was hovering just beyond the Iifa Tree. Kuja was positively giddy as he stood defenseless on the beach. Surely Brahne wouldn't give up a golden opportunity like this.

XXXXXXXX

Brahne could see that the battle wasn't going exactly as planned. Kuja had more monsters at his command than she first though, and her ships' cannons didn't have much effect against them. Almost every soldier sent to the beach was dead. The ones who survived had run off, probably to die against the elements. If it weren't for the black mages still on her ships keeping the monsters at bay, Alexandria would have lost the battle long ago. And now Kuja left himself out in the open just to mock her. The impatient queen ground her teeth in rage.

A soldier broke her out of her thoughts as she came into Brahne's private chambers and saluted. "Your Majesty, the black mages have completed their preparations."

Brahne licked her lips and gave a wide grin. "That insolent whelp!" she said, leering at Kuja. "Now I can finish him off!" She pulled out a dark red gem and held it high. "Come! Draconic Seedling! Bahamut, King of Dragons!"

A ball of fire flashed out of the gem and landed beside the ship. The flames spread in a perfect circle and rested on top of the water, like oil. After several seconds, a large, condensed ball of fire shot out like a bullet. It arced up and around, finally crashing into the water and sending waves in every direction. The fireball cooled against the water and rocketed forth. A pair of wings unfolded and flapped, gaining the dark shape altitude. It's arms and legs emerged quickly, revealing Bahamut, the King Eidolon. Wielder of Flare magic.

Brahne grinned at her sudden dominance.

XXXXXXXX

I could only watch, mouth agape, as the fire molded itself into a towering dragon. Bahamut was not the largest Eidolon I had seen, but he was the most intimidating. If he so much as glanced in our direction, we'd all be dead before we could get off the platform.

The others looked on the same way I did, though Dagger seemed especially interested. She held on to the stone in her hand tightly, brimming with determination.

Meanwhile, Bahamut slowly flapped his enormous wings above the beach. Kuja just stood still while the dragon opened its mouth wide. It glowed a light purple, energy pouring out like from a faucet, before the Dragon King let loose his fury. Several charged bolts of Flare shot out of his maw, aiming straight for Kuja.

However, the proud thespian did not move.

Bahamut's attacks hit the ground in exploding fury. Each attack blew up the beach and the surrounding area like a bomb dropped from a plane. Kuja was soon engulfed as the magic overtook him and his dragon. We lost sight of him under the fire and mushroom clouds.

As I watched, I could feel myself going numb. It wasn't because Kaiten was trying to take over though. It was fear. Pure, unrelenting fear. The other summons we had seen had been impressive, but other than Atomos, none of them had been all that frightening.

Amarant was the first to find his voice. "I've heard the stories," he said. "But I never thought summoning could be so powerful."

Dagger let out a loud sigh of relief. "Now… Now we can win! And Mother won't have to die! Eiko, don't you think…" Dagger paused for a moment as she noticed Eiko's look of concern. "What's wrong?"

"It's Mog," Eiko said, holding the young moogle in her arms. "She's terrified!"

"How come? Don't you know? That's the last eidolon, Bahamut, the Dragon King! He'll win for sure!"

I had to clench my mouth shut to keep from revealing too much. Only Kaiten and I knew the truth.

XXXXXXXX

Kuja had barely escaped most of the damage from Bahamut's attack by riding the silver dragon out of the area. The fire and the flames roasted the beaches behind him and turned the entire area to glass. He smirked at how he was able to escape unscathed, until he felt something wet on his forehead. He reached up and pressed against it. Pulling back, he now found his hand smeared red.

"Blood…" he realized. "Hahahaha... Excellent, Bahamut! Power, mobility… You truly are the best! You even hurt me… a little."

Kuja cleaned his forehead with his hand, casting a Cura spell on himself. "And you, Brahne… " he said, looking below again at the ants beneath him. "Your tragic role in this drama now comes to an end! I'm sure you'll enjoy the second act from your soul's hellish prison, since the stage will be your former home! The final act will take us away from Gaia, and I will kill my nemesis with my own hand! Hahaha! Everything is going according to plan."

Kuja spread his arms wide over his head. His big moment. Everything had lead to this point and his plan couldn't have gone any better. He relished his adrenaline rush as the dark clouds moved over the battlefield. The clouds soon covered most of the sky over the Iifa Tree.

In the middle of the cloud, obscured by the black wisps of smoke, came a gigantic orange eye. It practically reeked of power, blinking once. Grey skin covered it before the eye locked onto its target. A crosshair appeared over the orange eye before the secret weapon unleashed its attack.

From the dark clouds came waves of a mind-numbing screech. The Alexandrians were crippled by it and did whatever they could to cover their ears. However, it did them no good as they crashed about on the decks. The black mages that were still alive had toppled over, unable to defend themselves from the assault. Even Queen Brahne tried her best to cover her ears with her fat arms, but the sound simply penetrated through them. Only Kuja seemed unfazed by the attack. He brought a finger to his lips in anticipation of the climax of his little play.

Finally, the dark clouds subsided and the noise halted. Brahne could stand to move again. She looked up from her deck and began to order her troops to regroup, but was cutoff in mid sentence. She stared in terror as the enormous shadow passed over her ship. Suddenly, she knew what Kuja's mysterious sound had been for.

Bahamut flapped his wings slowly as he stared down Brahne. He grabbed the front of the ship and opened his enormous maw once again. Brahne quickly grabbed the garnet that had once controlled Bahamut and ordered him to halt, but she couldn't even hear herself over the monstrous eidolon's roar. It made no difference. Her words would have had no effect upon the Dragon King.

Bahamut charged up another flare. His mouth glowed briefly as he stared down his former master. Brahne only let out the faintest scream before her ship was vaporized.

The Alexandrians upon the other ships could only stare in abject horror. As their queen's ship exploded, they screamed in disbelief. After all this time, after all these conquests, Queen Brahne had fallen.

Their screams were cut short as well. Bahamut rose into the air once again and stared angrily at another of the navy's ships. The commanding officers ordered full retreats or to evacuate the ships. In the confusion, many soldiers fell overboard, some were trampled, and none of them knew what to do. They made easy targets as Bahamut's flame blew them into nothingness.

One by one, the Alexandrians' ships were destroyed. Bahamut annihilated one right after another. The ships that remained floating were covered with flames hot enough to melt rock.

Alexandria's entire military force, which had conquered three other countries, unlocked unknown black magic, and controlled the twisted, forgotten powers of the eidolons, had been destroyed in under thirty seconds.

With his job done, Bahamut rose into the air one final time. He twirled quickly and disappeared into the clouds. The gem that had once housed him was now occupied again, and rested in Kuja's hands. The proud thespian brushed a strand of hair out of his face as he and the silver dragon flew away.

A smile graced his lips as he made his exit.

XXXXXXXX

The battle had been over for hours by the time Brahne's escape pod finally washed up on shore. It was a small boat with a light frame and only one mast. Apparently, part of this ship could detach from the main ship and sail on its own. However, her crew was dead and Brahne was too weak to control it. It was only by luck that the wind blew her towards us.

Brahne laid dying on the deck. I would have made a joke about her looking like a beached whale, but Dagger stopped all of us when she stooped over her mother's body and started to cry.

I didn't like it. Even though Brahne was a wretched person and our sworn enemy, she was still the woman who raised Dagger. I felt disgusted as I watched. Half of me wanted to comfort Dagger however I could, but the other half wanted to kick Brahne in the face. In the end, I just left them both alone.

The others on the ship didn't seem to know what to do. Amarant was pacing the boat from bow to stern, finding the corpses and remains of any Alexandrian soldiers and tossing them overboard. Zidane and Eiko were sitting together talking. Eiko probably needed to be filled in on a few things. I saw Vivi standing alone, staring at Dagger while Brahne, still barely alive, caressed her cheek.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

Vivi didn't respond for a while. I sat down next to him and rested my head on my hand.

"I hate Kuja a lot," Vivi finally said. He took a breath before he continued. "But I hate Brahne a lot too. So much that I wanted this to happen to her. I should be happy but…" Vivi started to choke up. He covered his eyes to stop himself from crying.

"Take your time," I told him. I put my hand on his back and gave his shoulder an assuring squeeze.

"I just…" Vivi started again. "Once I saw Dagger starting to cry, I didn't know how to feel. It almost makes me want to cry. I mean… what am I supposed to do?"

I couldn't relate to Vivi's predicament exactly. I knew this was going to happen and I had to suppress some level of joy that I was feeling. I was the one who predicted where the boat was going to wash up. I felt some responsibility, but other than that, I wasn't too sure myself.

"Vivi…" I began. "None of this is easy. I agree that we should be happy that Brahne is dead. Hell, I wanted to drive a sword into her too, but it wouldn't have been worth it since it would only hurt Dagger."

"But that's just it!" Vivi said. "If it weren't for Dagger, we would be celebrating, wouldn't we?"

"Probably. Just try to keep your distance. She's going to need some time alone after all this."

"Isn't there anything we can do to help her?"

I searched my mind for a moment, wondering if there was in fact anything we could do for her. A party or a round of drinks wouldn't do anything. Nor would saying, "Sorry for your loss". In the end, I came up with nothing.

"No," I finally answered. "Not a damn thing."

"I'm so confused," Vivi said. He hugged his knees tightly.

"Just be glad that our enemy is dead, but sad that Dagger's hurt. Okay?"

Vivi nodded slowly.

"Good."

The sun was setting in the distance. The sky was beginning to color itself in shades of red and orange. It did a good job of covering the fires on the three ships in the distance that still hadn't sunk. We were going to have to make it back to Alexandria sometime soon.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see Zidane walking towards me.

"Trevor," he said. "We need to leave soon. We'll have to get Dagger to Alexandria so she can become the new queen."

I looked down the deck and saw Dagger sobbing over Brahne's corpse. The queen had died in the last minute, leaving Dagger as the sole heir to the throne of Alexandria.

"I need you to check the stores inside the ship and take inventory," Zidane said.

"Good idea," I said. "What about a pilot? Can you get us out of here?"

"Airships are harder to steer. This little thing shouldn't be a problem for me."

"Alright," I said, standing. "We should leave ASAP. Let's just hope we have some food on board."

I walked down the deck, passing behind Dagger. I stopped for a moment and looked at her. I wanted to help her, to make her stop crying, but I stopped myself and pulled my hand away. I kept walking, hating the fact that I was powerless at the moment.

The storage room under the deck was bigger than I thought. Barrels and crates of emergency supplies and food lined the walls. There were a few med kits in a closet next to the stairs, not that we would need any with two white mages on board.

"_That was much more impressive than I thought it would be,_" Kaiten said. "_Eidolons… We had heard about them on Terra, but most people just considered them a pagan myth._"

_Worried about what we'll have to face next?_

"_Very. I don't know if anything will change, but even if the storyline stays on track, we're in for a hell of a time._"

_Yup._ I sighed. _At least we're prepared for it._

"_But the eidolons aren't my biggest concern. What worries me more is that Kuja took an attack from an eidolon and came out with only a scratch._"

_And from Bahamut too, one of the strongest eidolons around._

"_That can only mean that Kuja's stronger than an eidolon._"

_Yup. Any ideas?_

"_It will have to wait until we reach Alexandria,_" Kaiten said. "_It's time I started training you._"

XXXXXXXX

**Epilogue**

There was an eerie silence in the white room deep within Trevor's mind. A foul wind blew across the room with a howl. It came from the hole in the floor that led to the deepest recesses of Trevor's subconscious.

Inside the hole, the book containing the forgotten memories of his mother laid open, imprinting itself upon the rest of Trevor's mind. It seeped through the bloody field like a parasite, burrowing its way along the ground. The burrowing tunnels simply led themselves into the blackness, out of sight and deeper into Trevor's mind.

However, one led towards the second lump under the caked blood next to the book of childhood memories. The tunnel vibrated and spasmed until the blood holding the second lump shut broke open. Shards of dried blood flew everywhere, revealing a second memory book, forgotten alongside the first book.

The second book opened and it too began to slowly imprint itself on Trevor's mind.

The book was simply titled, "Repressed Hatred".

XXXXXXXX

Book 2: Anger, complete.

Book 3: Destruction, coming soon…


End file.
